In Search of Faith
by muffin1513
Summary: rated M for language and implied sexuality. AU, College Finchel & others. Finn has a girl back home in Ohio but a certain brunette lands in his life and, complicates things. Drama ensues. I DO NOT own Glee, or any songs mentioned. Quick,Klaine,Tike,ect.
1. Sexiled

**okay, so this is my first glee fic. Be kind, or not, I guess criticism is welcome as well as compliments! Any suggestions will be taken into consideration. :) enjoy!**

**pairings- Finchel, Quick, Tike, Britanna, Klaine, Puck/OC, sorry, as of now Sam has no love interest. Maybe it will change if anyone has any ideas!**

**disclaimer: I do not, will not ever and have never owned Glee. Unfortunately, I only own the characters you don't recognize. BTW, I named Lucy after Quinn's real name (remember Lucy Caboosey?), because I gave her all the traits I hate about Quinn and the "Quinn" in this story is a nice, non scary, version. ^_^**

**-_Finn-_**

"Yes mom, Lucy and I are fine! No, mom, she's not making me say that, I love you too," I hung up my phone and dropped it onto my bed. Of course I lied, Lucy hates it when I talk to my mom about our "issues". Something about how we need to appear perfect even when we aren't, and lately we are NEVER perfect. Of course that might have something to do with me going to school at NYU and her being home in Lima, Ohio. It's weird, lying to my mom like that, I usually tell my mom everything. We've always been close, especially considering she raised me by herself. I've never really had a guy I could look up to, until my mom married Burt. Now I have a father figure AND a brother. Plus, Kurt's a pretty rocking brother.

"You need to get OUT!" Puck burst through the door to our dorm room and picked my backpack up off the floor and dumped it out into the hallway.

"Puck, what the hell?" Puck may be my best friend but he wasn't the best roommate. He sexiled me a couple times a week at least, at least I knew Mike wasn't getting laid, so I could bunk with him.

"Ashleigh is going to be here in fifteen minutes, LEAVE! I had a crappy day, I need Puck time!" He ran his hand through his mohawk and tried to shove me out the door.

I sighed, there was no point in arguing with him, he'd get it on with or without me in the room, the only reason he bothered kicking me out was because Ashleigh wasn't the exhibitionist type. "Fine, but let me get my phone," I pushed by him and grabbed my phone off the bed. "Make sure you keep away from my bed, okay?" I asked as I walked out into the hallway.

"Why? We didn't last time," He smirked before shutting the door in my face. Dick.

-**_Rachel_-**

"SAN!" I pounded on the door to our dorm room. "SANTANA! OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!" I screamed over the music blaring from inside.

"Jesus Berry, I needs to get my mack on, lay off will ya?" She complained from the other side of the door.

"Is Matt in there? San, I NEED my lab notes! I have an exam tomorrow!" I cried. I heard a groan and some moving around. Suddenly I felt my notebook slide under the door and hit my ankles. "Really San?" But she responded simply by turning the music back on.

What do they call this again? Being sexiled? I sighed, I'm getting really sick of sleeping on the couch in the common room. I sulked down the hall with my notebook in hand and rounded the corner. Ramming into something huge on the other side. My notebook flew out of my hands and I bounded to the floor with a gasp.

I looked up to see an incredibly tall, incredibly handsome boy staring down at me with a shocked expression, "Oh my god I'm so sorry!" He sputtered. He knelt down to pick up some of the papers that fell out of my notebook and handed them to me. He then offered me his hand and helped me up.

"It's okay, I wasn't watching where I was going, it's so late, I didn't think anyone else was out and about," I explained, lost in his eyes, they were the color of rich honey. They looked just as sweet too.

He shrugged, "got sexiled," I found myself giggling at the comment.

"Me too," I blurted and quickly blushed, oh god, great now I'm the dorky short girl in advanced lab who never gets laid and sleeps in the common room. Then again he was sexiled too, but he most certainly didn't look like someone who would get sexiled, that was just wrong and he looked like he could do all kinds of right.

-_**Santana**_-

"that was close," I whispered, leaning in for another kiss. Feeling the warmth radiating from the body beneath me. Making me feel so loved and secure, something I never really felt before now. I finally understand love.

"I know, but would it really be so bad if she caught us? She's your best friend, she'd be accepting wouldn't she? She has two gay dads," The blonde sat up, and I sat indian style in front of her.

"Yeah, she'd be great about it, I know it. It's just I'm not ready for people to know yet, and I've been lying to her, telling her I'm with Matt when I'm with you and I don't want her be hurt that I didn't tell the truth," Berry really was my best friend. She and Q have gotten me through a lot of shit over the years. Out of everyone I know she understands me the most. I was a little annoyed at how emotional and sappy I was getting over this. But Brit brought that out in me.

"San, you know I love you, I wouldn't let anything happen to you," Brittany said, as if she would be able to defend me against the pigs that made up our athletics department.

"Brit, don't be so naive, there are bad people out there, sure I can hold my own. But it's you I'd be worried about, you're so innocent Brit. I don't want anyone to ruin that!" I stood, I could feel myself getting worked up.

"What are you talking about? I've been out for a week now, I told my parents last weekend when I went to their place for Lord Tubbington's birthday," She responded, twirling a piece of her hair around her finger.

I stared at her, confused. "You came out? You didn't tell me! Brit, are you okay? Has anything happened?"

"No, everyone's been pretty great actually, at least to my face, don't worry San. If anything happened you'd be the first one to know. I know you could destroy them with your brutal brutal words," She smiled sweetly and I couldn't help but smile back. I love her.

-**_Finn_**-

We sat on the couch in the common room. She was cross legged and facing me, her body small enough to fit herself easily on the one cushion. She was adorable, and so smart. I could tell because she kept using words I didn't understand. I offered to buy her a soda out of the machine and she called me chivalrous, which I suppose must be a good thing because the way she looked at me when I said it, you'd think I'd just lifted the entire machine with one arm.

We talked about our roommates, she'd met Puck. He hit on her during orientation freshmen year. Of course he did. I knew Santana from chemistry, or biology, or some science class I had that involved a lot of microscopes. Though I'd only seen her actually in class a handful of times, I guess she skipped a lot.

"So where are you from?" She asked me, popping open her can of sprite.

"Lima, Ohio, tiny town you've probably never heard of," I answered, grinning foolishly at her.

She giggled. Dear god that was the cutest sound ever. Wait, wasn't my _girlfriend'_s voice supposed to be the cutest sound ever? Lucy's voice was definitely a lot of things, shrill, maybe but cute? I dunno.

"Nope, you're right. I've been a New Yorker all my life, It's my home and there's no place else I'd rather be," She said proudly.

"What are you here for?" I asked her, for some reason she seemed like she should be somewhere better, like Harvard or something. Some place that only accepted perfect. She was smart enough, as far as I could tell.

"I'm studying music, it's always been my dream to be on broadway. But I didn't get into Juilliard, or NYADA, and NYU was next on the list," she shrugged, sadness in her eyes.

"oh," I said, "Well, I'd love to hear you sing," I really would too, she was a tiny thing, I was intrigued to hear what kind of voice she sported. She talked an awful lot, so she must have some strong pipes on her.

She lit up, her grin inflating like a balloon. Her eyes sparkled and made my heart beat double time. "Really?" she asked.

"yeah, really, I'd bet you're amazing," I smiled back at her, because I meant it.

"My friends and I go to this karaoke place downtown every other Friday, we're going tomorrow, you should come with us," She said eagerly and grabbed ahold of my hand, turning it palm up. She pulled a pen out of the spiral binding of her notebook and scribbled some numbers on my palm. "That's my cell phone number, text me if you want to go, and if not, that's my cell phone number anyway," a smile played with her lips and she bit her bottom lip to keep it at bay.

I nodded, "Okay," looking at the numbers, with a swirly "Rachel Berry" and a big star doodled next to it.

**well there you go! Chapter 1. This is kind of a trial, to see if anyone likes it, so reviews are magic! If I get some positive feedback, I'll continue this, I've already got a few chapters written so it's just a matter of putting them up here. :)**

**read, review, repeat ;) comprende'? **

**sincerely, your loving author.**


	2. Debates

**thank you guys so much for the reviews! I was seriously giddy when I read them this morning :D So in this chapter you'll meet more characters and a couple teachers. It'll be more of a introductory chapter to follow the initial finchel meeting. Plus some Finn/Lucy drama, but as you'll discover with this chick, it's always drama. enjoy! **

**-_Rachel_-**

I woke up on the common room floor, confused and exhausted.

"Rach, I brought you coffee," I looked up at Santana's yawning face and took the paper cup in her hand, quickly sipping the coffee and then immediately spitting it back out.

"San! It's cold!" I exclaimed, wiping my chin with the sleeve of my sweater.

"Yeah well, why are you on the floor?" She took the cup away from me and tossed it in the nearby trash can. "I texted you, you could've come back to the room, I ,uh, kicked Matt out around midnight,"

"oh, I must've passed out after Finn left," I said, yawning and getting up off the floor.

"Finn? Hudson? Quarterback?" She narrowed her eyes at me and sat on the couch. I sat next to her and stretched my arms, I've never felt so sore in my life.

"Yeah, we ran into each other," I glared at her, "We'd both been sexiled,"

Santana smirked, "yeah, sorry about that, it was important," She looked down at her fingernails. Like she was hiding something. I jumped to conclusions.

"Are you PREGNANT?"I shout whispered. She burst into hysterics and patted me on the knee.

"Oh, god, sweetie, no," She shook her head, "I am most certainly not pregnant,"

**-_Finn_-**

I walked slowly back to my dorm and tapped on the door. Puck didn't answer so I pulled my key out of my pocket and opened the door, streaming light into the otherwise pitch black room.

"Get your ass in here and shut the damn door," Puck growled, pulling his pillow over his face.

"whatever," I rolled my eyes at him, but he couldn't see me. I flicked the light switch on and he groaned loudly.

"Dammit Finn! What the fuck's wrong with you!" He tossed his pillow at me.

"I slept on the recliner in the library you asshole!" I threw it back. "Wake the hell up, we have class in fifteen minutes!" I dragged my feet lazily to our bathroom that we shared with the dorm next to us and pushed open the door to find Sam brushing his teeth. "hey Sam," Sam nodded and spit into the sink.

"SO wake me up in ten!" Puck shouted and I heard him flop back face down onto the pillow. Lazyass.

"Where were you last night? I texted you, you could've crashed with me and Mike," Sam asked as he put his toothbrush back into the cabinet and leaned against the sink. "We watched Avatar, well I did, Mike spent the entire night asking stupid questions about it," Sam rolled his eyes and I smirked. Sam was the hugest dork I'd ever met, but he was also hopeless romantic.

"I was going to, but I ran into a girl and we ended up talking til really late, so I crashed in the library, you going to debate today?" Sam and Mike had this debate class with Puck and I. The teacher, Mrs. Sylvester, has some weird fetish for arguements, she pretty much gives us a touchy subject and watches us try to tear each other apart. She was also the coach of the campus cheerleaders.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, is Puck skipping again? Coach Bieste will be pissed if he flunks out of that class, he's hanging by a thread already,"

"Yeah well, I go everyday and I'm about to flunk too. I don't like conflict, this class is ridiculous to me," I pulled out my own toothbrush and shoved it into my mouth, working it over my teeth. Suddenly my mind went to Rachel and her perfect smile.

"Who was this girl anyway?" Sam asked curiously.

"Rachel, Berry," I said, with my mouth full of toothpaste.

"Rachel Berry? She's in my music theory class, she's amazingly talented," He enthused, "sometimes I wonder why she's here, she should be on broadway or something," yeah, I thought to myself, I wondered the same thing.

**-****_Puck_-**

I eventually got out of bed and we made it to debate on time. The four of us, Finn, Sam, Sam's roommate Mike and myself, took our usual seats and waited for the hall to fill up. Which usually only took a minute or two. Sylvester stood up behind her desk and wrote a word on the board. Sex. She turned to us, "go," she said. Sex, huh, a topic I actually know a thing or two about.

The students looked at each other, unsure of where to begin. I stood up. All eyes turned to me, some knew what was coming. Those eyes belonged to girls I'd already seen naked. "Is awesome, everyone should try it sometime," a few girls rolled their eyes, some guys hooted and hollered.

Sylvester pointed at me, "first, what is that dead thing on your head and why has no one called animal control?" some people laughed, I ran a hand nervously through my hawk. "Second, what about sex, this debate isn't about how in love you hormone crazed neaderthals are with the idea of someone actually wanting to get with you, it's about whether or not it should mean something. Should anyone put forth the effort to hold off until marriage? Or just wait until the urge strikes them. Now, GO!"

"Sex doesn't come with love," I spoke again, readying my argument and saying it over in my head to at least sound like I knew what the fuck I was talking about. "But love doesn't come with sex either. I knew a guy who was in a serious relationship with a girl for four years, he was totally over the moon for the girl, I didn't get what the fuck for, she totally castrated him, but they never had sex. Not once," I paused, a few people sat up and leaned forward, waiting for me to continue, "and countless guys AND girls on campus have multiple booty calls on speed dial," Some of the guys fist pumped at me, beaming in approval, some girls blushed or looked absolutely disgusted.

A girl a few rows ahead of me stood up and turned to face me. "But what your disturbed and disgusting mind doesn't quite understand is that, it's not supposed to be that way! Sex for two people who are in love and married and have a desire to start a family." This earned a few boos, a couple of the girls who were sitting next to her crossed their hearts with their fingers. She continued, "boys have degraded the meanings of love and sex for their own selfish pleasure. The male mind is so sex-centered, they flatter themselves and girls with no self-respect submit to their demands!"

This caused an eruption of angry protest. I scoffed, "that's insane," and rolled my eyes. I was about to throw in a rebuttle but another voice behind me beat me to it.

**-_Quinn_-**

"That is completely ridiculous! I am comfortable with myself and I am proud of my body and of who I am and I am also sexually active. It's not just men with the desire to have sex before marriage. The first time I had sex, I was sixteen, it was meaningful and awkward and perfect and it was with someone that I loved and cared deeply about. I've never once regretted my decision. Now I am NOT siding with Noah Puckerman's perverse idea of what sex should be about, but you, Penelope, are an extremely judgemental person. Get off your high horse and accept what has become the reality. Teenagers and young adults are driven so crazy by their hormones and they are bombarded with sexual imagry from all sorts of media outlets, that it's unrealistic to expect them to hold off until marriage," When I stopped speaking, the room actually clapped, but I wasn't finished, "However, I thoroughly believe that sex is best when it means something to both parties involved. I've had meaningless sex and trust me, it paled vastly in comparison to the real thing," there, now I'm finished.

The room clapped, loudly and some people even cheered. I saw Kurt sitting near the back smiling wildly at me. I was really proud of what I'd said. I glanced at Penelope, she and her chastity gang were standing frigidly with their arms crossed glaring at me. She even mouthed the word "harlot" at me and sat down, turning her nose up to everyone around her. Self-righteous bitch.

Coach Sylvester looked pleased with me, she nodded and then erased the word from the board, ending the debate. I'd won.

**-_Rachel_-**

Music Theory was my favorite class of the day. Mr. Shuester, the professor, was an amazing teacher. We spent most of the class performing different types of music. One week we actually sat in a circle and sang folk songs. This week we'd been doing numbers from musicals. Today was "wicked". I was ecstatic. Kurt and I were going to sing "For Good," in the auditorium. We'd even put together a bit of choreography. I skipped across the quad to the drama building and noticed Finn headed in the same direction.

"Finn," I called and ran to catch up to him. "I didn't know you were taking any music classes," I had to walk twice as fast as I usually do, his long legs took extremely long strides.

"uh yeah, I just transferred into one actually, turns out my advisor screwed up my classes last term and I was stuck in this pottery class. I did make a pretty kick ass flower pot though, my mom loved it," Finn smiled and I saw an adorable dimple pop up on his cheek. How was it possible that someone could be so cute. He had this boyish charm, almost childlike. Magical.

"oh, what class?" please say music theory, please, please. I silently prayed.

"music theory?" He said, glancing at a slip of paper in his hand.

Thank you oh merciful heavens! "really? that's where I'm headed now," I linked my arm through his, "I'll lead the way,"

"uh, y-yeah, okay," He sputtered. I blushed, I felt the heat rising in my cheeks. His arms were so warm and, muscular.

I suddenly felt his hip vibrating and looked up at him in confusion.

He stopped walking and fished through his pockets, pulling out a shiny black cell phone. "Hello? oh, hey Lucy, yeah I'm going to class now, can I call you after? Um, why not? I can't talk now," he paused, "what do you mean I don't make time for you? I have to go to class! No, class isn't more important than our relationship,"

Relationship? He had a GIRLFRIEND! Why didn't he mention that last night? I mean, I guess I didn't ask, but. Great, he's taken. OF COURSE he's taken. My life sucks.

"Lucy, I have to go to, no, I mean, yes, I mean, stop confusing me! I hate when you get all scary on me, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS THINK I'M CHEATING ON YOU? I don't know Lucy, why do you care what people would think, what, how did you see my grades? What do my grades even have to do with cheating on you?" He started to walk ahead of me, forgetting I was standing right there, "NO! I'm not cheating on you! Fine, I'll call you later, try to be less scary okay? Yeah, alright, bye," He snapped his phone shut and turned to his right and then spun around.

"Oh Rachel, sorry, uhm, yeah, sorry you had to hear that," He shoved his hand with his phone into his pocket and his ears turned red. "She's a handful,"

"I-I didn't know you had a, a girlfriend," I said quietly, walking back up to him.

"uh, yeah, but she, she's complicated, I never know what's going on with her, let's, let's just go to class okay?" He held his arm out and I linked mine through it again.

I smiled and nodded, well being friends with Finn is better than no Finn at all I suppose. This way, at least, I can still look at him.

**There you have it, sorry if it doesn't reach your expectations. It's kind of a filler or, like foreshadowing or something. I'm leading up to the good stuff. But I promise, it really is good stuff (at least I think so) :) you met Sam and Quinn in this chapter, next up you'll see some Finn family stuff and Brittana drama. Will San finally come out to Rachel? To her family? We'll see... **

**remember to read, review and repeat! ;) I'm going to try and update as often as I possibly can. The more feedback, the more motivated I'll be to update fast!**

**I loved all the love! sincerely, you're devoted author :)**


	3. Courage

**again thank you soo much for the love! I responded to a few of you who had questions or suggestions and some of you who were just too sweet to ignore :D Here's chapter 3, enjoy!**

_**-Santana**_**-**

It's been a year and a half since I began "fooling around with Matt". I met Brittany through coach Sylvester. When I joined the "cheerios" she approached me and introduced us, coach pulled me aside and told me that Brittany needed someone tough to keep an eye on her. I figured out why rather quickly, the girl was beautiful but she was naïve and trusting, two dangerous qualities to have in college.

I didn't know right away that I loved her. I'd never loved anyone before, let alone a girl. We just became fast friends, she hung out with Berry and I a lot. Before the cheerios, I really had been fooling around with Matt, but that stopped once I realized that Brittany was more than my best friend. I don't really know how it happened, we were hanging out one day and she was laughing at my impression of the dean. I just thought to myself, I love her. But then I got confused, I did love her, but did I really love her like _that?_ I got angry and asked her to leave. She had no idea what was going on. But somehow she figured it out without me even having to tell her.

She just came over one day when Rachel had her music theory class and told me she loved me too. We've been sneaking around ever since. I want to tell Rachel and my family, I really, really do. But I'm terrified, and Santana Lopez does NOT get scared.

"San," Brittany nudged my shoulder and I turned to look at her. "Do you want me to tell you about how I came out? Do you think it might help?" Sometimes she said the most helpful things. It always took me by surprise because most of the things she says just kind of fly out of her mouth blindly.

"Yeah, Brit, that's a good idea," I shifted to get comfortable and waited for her to begin.

"Well I told Lord Tubbington first," I nod, knowing this is ridiculous but I humor her because I love her and all her magical innocence. "He was quiet for a long time, but then he licked my face and cuddled up to me and I knew he still loved me, so I went downstairs and I said Mom, Dad, I want you to know something about me because I love you both and it's important that you hear this, I paused for effect and they looked scared, like I'd robbed a bank or something, so I just spit it out, I said I'm in love with my best friend and my best friend is a girl, and then I said that she loved me back and I hope that they can understand," She tipped her toward me and took my hand in hers.

"They looked confused for a little while, like I was joking and they were waiting for the funny part, or they thought I didn't understand what my words even meant. I hugged them and said I know you may not understand but I love you both and I love Santana too, and we want to be together, they finally got it, because my mom started getting upset and my dad just nodded. Eventually they said that they loved me too and that nothing could change that but it would take some time for them to accept this about me. I said that was okay because it was just a relief to tell them, and that's that," She smiled, and she really looked contented, like she'd been carrying a weight around and finally put it down. Which in a way, I suppose she did.

I nodded at her, "I'm glad you were able to do that, Brit, and I'm so proud of you. But I just don't know if I can let it out yet. I mean, it's not that I don't trust my parents or Rachel, it's just that I don't know if I'm ready to face this," I swallowed, "I don't know if I'm _strong_ enough to face this, but I'm just so tired, so tired of feeling so worried that they're going to hear it from someone else, someone who isn't me. I would hate for them to feel like I didn't care about them enough to tell them the truth," I battled with myself inside my head, I wanted to tell them, I wanted them to know me for who I was and to love me and support me like I know they will.

"San, you're strong enough to do anything, you're the strongest person I know, you can do this, I can go with you if you want to, but I believe in you. You're a unicorn," I smiled at her, I'd heard her use this term before, with Rachel when she tried out for a part last spring. Brit had said that Rachel was magical and she wasn't afraid to be, so that made her a unicorn. "I want you to be able to be yourself, because you're awesome, and if you'd embrace your magic everyone else would love you as much as I do,"

"When did you get so smart?" I said to her and kissed her cheek. She just shrugged and squeezed my hand.

I stood and put my hands on my hips, "okay," I said, "let's get this shit done,"

**-_Finn-_**

The first day of music theory had been terrifying. Mr. Shuester seemed like a cool guy, but everyone in there was so damn talented. I didn't even know what to do, so I just sat in one of the auditorium chairs and watched in awe as the class sang songs from this musical, oh, what was it, wicked? Yeah, that one. My step-brother Kurt and Rachel sang one together and it was amazing. Sam was right, she was sooo good. Sam's good too, I'd never heard him sing, well besides in the showers after games. But that was really just a hum and I didn't really listen. Because it'd be weird to listen to dudes while they sang in the shower...cuz it's the shower.

But anyway, I was still tense after my conversation with Lucy. She can be so frustrating! She was never like this when we were in high school, I don't know what happened. She was so collected and she was beautiful and we were popular. I don't know, maybe she was the same. Maybe I changed. I guess I realized there are things more important than being popular. Kurt taught me that. He was the best brother ever, even though I've never had one so I don't really have anything to compare it to.

I texted Rachel that night **hey, if the offer still stands, I'd love to go to that karkoke place with you -finn**

She texted me back a minute later _great! we meet in the common room of Washington Hall at 8, and it's karaoke ;) - Rachel *_

She always signed her name with a star, even through text. I chuckled to myself. Washington hall, that's not our dorm, it's one of the other dorms. I wonder who else was going, I wonder if I could get Puck to go.

"PUCK!" I called into the bathroom.

"What?" He shouted back.

"You wanna go somewhere tonight?" I asked, I texted Rachel again **do you know who else is going? -finn**

"with you, just you? Where the fuck do you wanna go?" He came out of the bathroom rubbing his hawk with a towel.

My phone buzzed _well me, my roommate Santana and her friends Brittany and Quinn from the cheerios, Sam and Mike from class, Kurt's going and he's bringing friends from where we works- Rachel *_

wow, I thought. She wrote everything out, she didn't shorten anything. Kurt's going and Sam and Mike? I didn't know they hung out. Kurt works at this clothing store, he insisted on calling it a bou- something. I know he's got two girl coworkers, Tina and Mercedes, and I've met them, they're pretty cool.

"Uh, no, a bunch of people are going, it's just downtown," I responded to Puck and texted Rachel **mind if my roommate goes too? -finn**

she responded almost immediately _yeah, sure, the more the merrier - Rachel *_

"yeah, I guess, but if I get invited to a party or some shit, we're ditching," He says pulling on a hoodie and grabbing his keys, "Let's go,"

I glance at the clock, 7:50, "yeah, okay," I shove my phone back into my pocket and follow him out the door.

_**-Rachel-**_

I read the text over again, **mind if my roommate goes too? -finn**

"Hey Sam, who's Finn's roommate?" I ask the blonde sitting on the couch in the Washington Hall common room. He opens his mouth to speak but is quickly interrupted by an unsettlingly familiar voice filling the room.

"The PUCKOSAURUS has arrived!" I spin around, face to face with someone I did NOT expect to see.

"NOAH? Oh god, I'm going to be sick," my head spun. No! I didn't want Finn to know about this. He probably already knows! He probably has details! Oh god, oh god.

"Berry!" Noah grins from ear to ear. "what a surprise, Finn, you know Berry?" He said in a devious tone of voice.

"Yeah, you too?" Finn cocks an eyebrow at me and I rub my temples nervously.

"You remember that girl last year? After the Championship game?" Noah smirked and put his arm around me. I covered my face, completely humiliated. Finn's face paled.

Santana tossed his arm off me and got in his face, "THAT was YOU!" She began shouting what I can only assume are spanish cuss words and Brit had to pull her back and calm her down.

Finn looked at me, as if waiting for me to say it wasn't true. Sadly I couldn't. I shook my head, ashamed. I was never going to get away from this was I?

**ooooh, cliffy! No, I'll tell you this right now, Puck and Rachel did NOT sleep together. But this certainly makes things a little complicated, like they weren't already. The next chapter will be at the karaoke joint, finchel will have a discussion and then an unexpected smackdown occurs! Who throws the punches? Santana? Finn? You'll see! If there's any POV you want to read through, just let me know and I'll try to figure something out. Plus any ideas for how I get samcedes together? some of you suggested that and its do-able. I was thinking maybe he'd have to woo her, which would be cute I think. Let me know!**

**read, review & repeat! :D sincerely your adoring author 3**


	4. Punch Line

**hey everyone! Here's chapter four, some of you were a tad anxious for this. maybe I should have made you sweat it out more :P just kidding I'm not mean, I'm as excited to see your responses as you are to read, actually I'm probably more excited than you are ;) anyway, the outcome isn't as drastic as you probably were thinking. But this is Rachel we're talking about EVERYTHING seems more dramatic than it really is. enjoy!**

**_-Puck-_**

Finn looked at me, then at Berry, "Wait, but you said that girl was frigid," He sighed after he said it, realizing that that probably wasn't the best thing to say.

"Frigid? Really Noah? You got me drunk! And I, I almost, I," She stuttered, not quite getting the words out.

"We almost did the nasty? Yeah, we almost did, and if Penelope fucking Decker hadn't walked into the damn library, we probably would have," I spit the words out for her. That Jesus freak single handedly prevented me from becoming the king of hook ups. Getting into Rachel Berry's padlocked pants would have made me immortal.

"Not like it made much of a difference! She made sure that EVERYONE believed we did!" The girl seriously looked like she was teetering on the edge of a breakdown. Santana was rubbing her shoulder comfortingly and shooting daggers at me.

"I denied it didn't I?" I recalled that pervert junior editor for the paper attempting to interview me about it. He wanted the inside scoop on how good she was in the sack, even when I told him it didn't happen, he stared at me like I was a fucking god or something.

"It wouldn't have happened at all if you'd kept your booze to yourself!" Santana pulled Berry closer to her and yelled at me.

**_-Sam-_**

This was getting way too intense for my taste. "Okay, okay, puck fucked up, Berry got wasted, rumors were spread. But that was last year, can't we just move on?" I stepped between San and Puck, afraid of her curb stomping his ass.

I glanced at Finn, who was standing quietly off to the side. This meant he was processing what was going on. He was probably trying to figure out why Rachel was alone with Puck to begin with. I wasn't even sure of that and I'd heard this story before. I'd heard the rumors too, and it doesn't surprise me that Finn hadn't. Finn's pretty good at tuning out gossip, and considering he never even knew Rachel til a couple days ago, he probably wasn't paying any attention if he had heard it.

He just heard Puck's side of the story. He got a hot sophomore drunk, he got her half naked and then the stuck up bitch from debate walked in and epically cockblocked him. That's Puck's story and he stuck to it. I gotta give him credit for denying the rumors, it was uncharacteristic of him.

Everyone nodded in agreement at me, and we finally split up into three groups and drove over to the karaoke joint. I arrived with Mike, Finn and Puck, we pulled up next to San's SUV and got out of Puck's truck. Rach and Brit hopped out and stood beside San, waiting for Kurt and his work friends to pull up.

A curvy dark skinned girl stepped out of the passenger side and walked up to us. She was easily the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. That's including Hermione Granger, and Princess Leia….combined.

**_-Rachel-_**

I really need to talk to Finn about this, he needs to hear my side of the story. I'm sure he's only heard Noah's and I can only imagine what awful things he must have said. I tugged a little on Finn's arm and he slowed down so we were walking at the back of the group into the Karaoke place, Mckinley's.

"I need to tell you what happened," I whispered to him.

He looked straight ahead, stiffly. "I know what happened," He said, deadpan.

"No, you only know Noah's side, and that's not fair," I grabbed him arm and stopped him. San looked back at me, concerned but I motioned for her and the rest of the group to go on in.

"What's the difference, you hooked up with Puck, just like every other girl at our school," He said, lumping me with every other slutty cheerio on campus.

"that's not fair Finn, he got me drunk, I was vulnerable and he took advantage of that," I don't even know why I feel like I have to explain myself to him. I also don't know why he's so upset about it.

"He made you drink?" He said, accusingly.

"Well no, but you don't see how the people at school treat me Finn! I'm a freak, and they know it, and they make sure I know it too," I said, looking down at my purple ballet flats. I smiled, I love how I dress, but no one else does. San even points out how "childish" I look, I've got the sex appeal of a preschooler.

"So a couple of kids picked on you, everyone gets picked on," He said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Not Quinn, or Santana, or even you, you're accepted. No one likes me, either I'm a loser or I'm too talented. I never win, and, and Puck made me feel wanted, not necessarily loved, but he made me feel worthy, so I gave in, almost. Thank God for Penelope Decker," I finally took in a breath, but I held it. Waiting for him to respond. He was quiet for awhile.

He just nodded, I could tell he was still unsettled about the whole thing and probably disappointed in me. I don't know what was worse, that he was disappointed, or that he even seemed a little bit…jealous.

**_-Finn-_**

Of course she hooked up with Puck. She's beautiful and talented and smart, so of course Puck would try to get in on that. I guess I couldn't really blame her, Puck had this way about him that chicks just couldn't refuse. Or maybe she did refuse him and that's why he kept pushing it, and the alcohol just let her give in. Thank God for Penelope Decker.

I don't even understand why this got to me so much. Just the thought of Puck even kissing her is, well it's pissing me off to be honest. I wasn't even this upset when I suspected Lucy of cheating on me. I'd been a coward then, I didn't even confront her about it, I just learned to ignore my jealous feelings. But with Rachel, I couldn't ignore them. I didn't want to be a coward anymore. I need to fight for what I want.

Wait, did I just admit to wanting Rachel. I'm so screwed.

**_-Quinn-_**

Noah Puckerman. What a piece of work. Why is he even here? Doesn't he have a rave to get to or something? Doesn't he have some slut waiting for him in his bed?

So why is he here, looking all, hot and dangerous and looking at me like I'm a goddess. Well, I kind of am a goddess, but he's not exactly my type. He's certainly not my parent's type, they would never approve.

Huh, maybe that's just what I need. Shit, I realized I was staring back at him. I look away quickly, but I can see him smirking out of the corner of his eye.

"so Q, see anything you like?" Santana and Brittany appeared beside me and San waggled her eyebrows at me. I laughed softly, and glanced back at Puck, who was laughing at something with Mike.

"Possibly," No one would ever approve of Puck and me. Everyone hates him, except the guys and that super tall guy who I guess is his roommate. The idea of being with someone so, different, was suddenly really appealing.

"Hey, that skirt looks really nice, but I bet it'd look even nicer on my floor," I heard a sleazy, drunk voice purring in my ear. I could smell the whiskey on his breath and I almost hurled.

I spun around, "look, that line might work with a plastered hooker, but not me. So go waste your time with the bartender, I'm sure he'll call you a cab so you can go home and pass out, alone,"

His look changed from just horny, to angry AND horny. It frightened me, but I couldn't let that show.

"Listen you little bitch," But that's all he got out. A fist struck out like lightning and the guy was on the ground in a flash. He stayed down, groaning.

I looked over, still scared.

**_-Puck-_**

I was halfway to Quinn's rescue when all of a sudden I saw a blonde mop of hair punch the guy square in the jaw. That was a fantastic shot, but it was supposed to MY shot. Sam had literally beaten me to the punch.

"oh my god Sam, that was amazing," Quinn jumped into his arms, hers around his neck, "thank you! That guy was actually starting to scare me,"

"It was nothing Q, I wasn't going to stand there and let him talk to you like that," Sam's face didn't look smug, or devious. He didn't even look proud. He looked relieved, like he was truly afraid of something happening to her. He had his arms tightly wrapped around her and he squeezed before setting her down onto the floor. I know this will make me sound like a bitch, but seeing his face like that, I know he had better intentions than I did. So I was partly glad he beat me there, but still pissed off that he stole my thunder.

**_-Sam-_**

Thank god I got there, thank god I saw him and I saw the expression on Quinn's face. She was afraid but her face was desperately trying to hide it. My mind was blank and before I knew it, my fist made contact with his face and Quinn was in my arms. I was relieved that she was okay, I couldn't bear if anything happened to any of my girls. Quinn, Rach, Brit, even San. I felt like it was my responsibility to protect them. It always has been, at least since our classes with Mr. Shue started. He brought us together, they were my girls, a few of my best friends, and I was their Sam.

Not to be cocky, but I was the most able bodied person in our little group, besides San but she fights dirty and with more words. Mike is awesome, but he's just not as physically able as I am and I'm taller, so I'm more intimidating. Until Finn and Puck showed up, unexpectedly I might add, I was the only person who could keep them safe. Part of me was happy to have help but the other part felt like I might lose something. I see the way Rachel and Q look and Finn and Puck, respectively, like they lift up the world.

I want someone to look at me that way.

**okay! I hope you liked what I did here, I didn't want what happened between puck and rachel to be so bad that it would be unfixable, but just enough to piss Finn off. Also I hope you liked the almost Squam there. Sorry for the scare Quick fans! this isn't squam so no worries! I just love the idea of Sam being the perfect guy friend. Plus the cute hopeless romantic sam at the end, maybe Mercedes can be his dream come true? You'll meet Tina next, so don't worry about that, Tike will be downplayed, its not as central to the story but it will be there. the central ships will be quick finchel and brittana, with a side of klaine, tike and samcedes. Plus we're getting a new student in a couple chapters! Can anyone guess who?**

**read, review & repeat! love you all and your kind words!**

**sincerely your dedicated author 3**


	5. Faithfully

**the universe has been against me finishing this chapter for you guys. First my own laptop croaks, then I'm too freaking busy to put it up from another computer. Then I can finally do it, and the laptop I was using dies before I can save it so here I am. thousandth time is a charm! Hope you like it :)**

_**-Rachel-**_

Karaoke night is usually my favorite night out. But Finn has been avoiding my like the plague since our talk about Puck. I still don't understand why he got so upset about it. He couldn't possibly be jealous, I facebooked his girlfriend and she's gorgeous. All blonde and perfect and GOD why don't I look like that. Wait, when did I get so insecure? Stop it, stop it, stop it. I'm fabulous.

"Alright! Time to pick our first singers of the night!" The DJ lowered the music and harnessed everyone's attention. The crowd livened a bit, anxious to see who will sing first. The spotlight circled the crowd a few times before it landed on Kurt's coworker, Mercedes. "We've found our victim! Come on up here pretty lady!"

Mercedes smiled proudly and made her way onto the stage, hand on her hip in a very divalike fashion. The DJ handed her the mike and she faced the crowd. Aretha's Respect came over the speakers and Mercedes let out the strongest voice I'd heard in a long time.

**_-Sam__-_**

ohmygod. Her voice is like angels dipped in chocolate. Rich, delicious, chocolate from the heavens.

**_-Puck-_**

Okay, okay, the big girl can sing. But are you fucking KIDDING me? I am NOT down with singing in public. I'm going to full out murder Finnessa. If I have to stand up there like a god damn geek and belt out some lame ass song, I will light this place on fire. ON FIRE! Don't get me wrong, I have a badass voice. I'm pretty fucking good. But that's no one else's god damn business. Shit, if the team finds out I was even here, I'll get slushied for a week. My hawk doesn't like corn syrup, dammit!

**-Finn****_-_**

Wow, Mercedes' voice is pretty awesome. The entire crowd is clapping along with her, including myself. Rachel is leaning against the bar with a megawatt smile on her face, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes.

I'm not avoiding her, not really, I just don't know what to say to her. I don't have a good reason to be pissed about this whole Puck thing. But I am, and I can't justicfy, or judic-, justify? yeah, I can't justify my anger. It's just that I thought I'd found the only awesome girl who hadn't been Pucked. But it turns out, she almost was. Yeah, sure, they didn't do it. But they would have and that's the point.

I'd tell her all of this, but again, it's not my place to be pissed off. She's not my property and I'm not her keeper.

"Excellent Job! Everyone give her a round of applause," and everyone did. "Next, how about we do a duet, hmm?" the spotlight began circling the crowd again, flicking from left to right until it finally settled on...me. Fuck. and then another spotlight appeared and I heard people "oooh"ing. I turned to see Rachel squinting under the spotlight. Double fuck. I felt Kurt's tiny hands on my back as he shoved me toward the stage. Rachel was there, waiting and holding out her hand. She was biting her lip and had an apologetic look in her eyes. She simply nodded when I hesitated to take her hand. Like, she already knew I wouldn't want to sing with her. But the thing was, I really wanted to.

I took her hand and she smiled. For the first time all night, her smile reached her eyes.

**_-Rachel-_**

He stood beside me on stage, looking through the song list. "I don't know any of these," he whispered. "except this one, but," I looked at the song he was pointing at.

"I know that one, let's do it!" I smiled brightly at him. He nodded, his expression unreadable and handed the selection to the DJ. I cleared my throat and handed him his microphone.

He looked at me, instead of the crowd when he began to sing.

**[A/N: italics-finn bold-rachel underlined-both]**

_Highway run _  
><em>Into the midnight sun <em>  
><em>Wheels go round and round <em>  
><em>You're on my mind <em>  
><strong>Restless hearts <strong>  
><strong>Sleep alone tonight <strong>  
><strong>Sending all my love along the wire <strong>  
><span>They say that the road <span>  
><span>Ain't no place to start a family <span>  
><span>Right down the line it's been you and me <span>  
><span>And loving a music man <span>  
><span>Ain't always what it's supposed to be <span>  
><em>Oh Girl <em>  
><em>You stand by me <em>  
><span>I'm forever yours <span>  
><span>Faithfully <span>  
><strong>Circus life <strong>  
><strong>Under the big top world <strong>  
><span>We all need the clowns to make us smile <span>  
><span>Through space and time <span>  
><span>Always another show <span>  
><span>Wondering where I am lost without you <span>  
><span>And being apart ain't easy on this love affair <span>  
><span>Two strangers learn to fall in love again <span>  
><span>I get the joy of rediscovering you <span>  
><strong>Oh boy<strong>  
><strong>You stand by me<strong>  
><span>I'm forever yours <span>  
><span>Faithfully <span>

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh   
><span>Oh oh oh oh oh oh <span>  
><span>Faithfully <span>  
><span>I'm still yours <span>  
><span>I'm forever yours <span>  
><span>Ever yours <span>  
><span>Faithfully<span>

when the song finished. We stodd staring at each other in shock while the crowd clapped. Finn's jaw was hanging slack, my hand was on his arm and it was tingling like crazy. He finally spoke, "wow," and then we both fell back into reality.

I turned and smiled at the crowd and Sam helped me off the stage. Finn shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way back over to Kurt. I felt a little hurt, until I caught his eye and he gave me this lopsided grin that made my knees just about give way. He nodded his head toward the door and I followed him out.

"hey, uh, you did grea-" suddenly his lips were on mine. What is he thinking? He has a, a, god his lips are so soft, no! he has a girlfriend, leslie, or uh, lindsey? I can't even think straight, my arms curl around his neck as he lifts me off the ground. My body responding to his kisses without first consulting my brain. My legs wrapped around his waist and he nipped hungrily at my neck. "Finn," it came out more as a moan than as the warning I'd intended. Stop it, this is such a terrible, terrible thing to be doing!

"Finn! We can't," I made him put me down and I stared helplessly at him. "This is wrong, you have, Lucy," That's her name! "and, it's just, wrong," But once again my body didn't care what my brain was screaming. I grabbed onto his collar and pulled his lips back to mine and this time I took the lead.

**-Finn-**

Wow, her lips are so soft and delicious, what is that? Cherry? I don't know, whatever it is, I can't stop tasting it. Her legs are wrapped around my waist again and suddenly it's all too much. Everything I'm feeling is rushing through me at top speed, her lips, her legs, the soft skin of her thighs, her hands in my hair.

I have to put her down. mailman,mailman,mailman. shit. I put her down and stare at the ground, I can't even look at her. What the hell is wrong with me. I try to pull down my sweater to hide what just happened and I sputter some kind of apology and run back into the building to grab Puck and bolt. Leaving Rachel confused and hurt behind me.

**I know I said we'd meet Tina, but the timing just wasn't right. I needed the finchelness, I just needed it. Thank god I finally got this out, now I can move forward :) I throwing in bits of samcedes just to keep that flowing a little bit. I'll try my very hardest to bring Blaine in for the next chapter. But I don't really get to decide what happens, the characters do and Finn wanted him some Berry lovin. and so it happened. Plus I just LOVE the mailman situation. I find it hilarious and endearing. **

**Read, Review & Repeat. Love you all! :P**

**sincerely, your exhausted author.**


	6. After the kiss

**this chapter is gonna have a lot going on, there's a lot I want to accomplish. Let me know if I overwhelmed ****anyone. I'm doing my best to develop these relationships into what I want them to be, but they may ****take their own route. I hope the chapter makes sense, I'll try not to rush it :)**

_**-Rachel-**_

My mind has been reeling about last night's kiss all day. I couldn't even focus during my morning workout. My lips were still tingling, my mind was still fuzzy and I was still stuck on his quick retreat. Was I a bad kisser? Was I _too_ good? Was it because it was _me? _What happened? He hadn't called or texted me yet with any kind of explanation or apology. So here I was, sitting on my bed in my dorm with Santana sitting across from me, both of us unable to speak first. When she called me this morning when I was at the gym she said she had something she needed to talk to me about. I thought maybe she'd already found out about the kiss, but the way she was wringing her hands told me this was big. Perhaps pregnancy big? WHY do I ALWAYS jump to that?

"I'll go first," I said, and she exhaled, nodding her head. "Last night, after our song, Finn kissed me," Santana looked up, half shocked and half impressed.

"Go hudson," She smirked, her nerves fading for a moment, "details?"

I took a breath, "It was amazing! At least, I thought so, we were getting really into it and then he just left, he just ran off muttering some unintelligible apology!"

San just shook her head, "Berry, you're hot, I gotta say, and like you're my best friend so obviously I think you're pretty cool. So don't let a wimp like that put a dent in your self-confidence okay? Promise me,"

"I promise San, I won't, I won't even dwell on it, he's got a girlfriend so that might be it anyway,"

"Who Lucy Karofsky? God she is SUCH a BITCH!"

"You know her?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, my team cheered against her in high school, thought she was cool shit and all, I almost curb-stomped her ass at one point," this statement made me laugh. My best friend was vicious.

"there was something you wanted to tell me San?" I smiled, waiting her to drop a potential bomb on me.

She took a deep breath and nodded, "you ready?" she asked.

_**-Santana-**_

Rach just stared at her hands, her brow furrowed. She looked confused, but I don't really get what's confusing. "I like girls," is pretty straight forward. I couldn't formulate a way to say this any better than that, it just kind of flew out of my mouth, brit-style.

"You've known this for awhile?" Rachel asked me.

"Yeah, ever since Brit and I started hanging out really," She looked at me, hurt flooding her eyes. I was afraid of this.

"Why didn't you tell me? San, I'm your best friend, I'm your roommate for godsakes! Did you think I wouldn't understand? That I wouldn't still love you? That I'd treat you any different!" She stood up and threw her arms in the air. Of course, Berry and all of her theatrics.

"No, Rach, you have to understand. I love you, you _are _my best friend, but I love Brit in a completely different way, a way I'd never experienced before and I didn't know how to accept it myself! I trust you, and I wanted to tell you the moment I knew for sure. I just needed to learn to accept and love myself the way I was before I could handle telling you," I explained. I studied her face, her features softened and she reached out and took my hand.

"I would love you no matter what, you are so important to me and it means so much that you told me at all. I'm just so sorry that I wasn't able to help you deal with this," She said quietly.

I squeezed her hand, "It's okay, I've come to terms with it, Brit came out to her parents last week and I plan on telling my parents when I go home for thanksgiving,"

"That's amazing San, if you need me at all when you tell them, you call me okay?" I nodded at her. My mind already felt more at ease. This was a good idea. I pulled Rach in for a hug, and she held onto me for dear life. She wasn't afraid of me, or angry with me. She loved me for me and I've never felt more relieved.

_**-Sam-**_

I woke up and glanced at my alarm clock. 12:47. Wow, I rolled over and stretch my arm, instantly pulling back and wincing. My knuckles were bruised and throbbing. You're lucky I love you Quinn, I thought to myself. I sat up on my bed and looked over at Mike's, it was empty and our room was silent. Oh right, He went shopping with Blaine. Mike's mother's birthday was tomorrow and Blaine was helping him pick something out for her. Blaine was in our Statistics class. He was pretty cool, I was blindsided when I found out he was gay though. It's fine and I know Kurt has a huge crush on him, so I've been trying to hook them up for awhile now.

I dragged myself off the bed and threw on a clean hoodie. I'll run out grab some coffee and maybe I'll meet up with them at the mall.

I fished for my keys in my pocket and then started up my truck. "Here we go Red," I tapped the dashboard. My truck was ancient, but it was part of me. As much a part of me as Sean Connery. My favorite starbucks was just around the corner off of campus, the door chimed when I walked through and I felt a couple people look up from their muffins and such. I walked up to the counter and ordered my coffee black. I glanced around the place and then heard a familiar voice.

"Can I get a caramel frappe? Extra foam?" I turned to face the customer.

"Mercedes," I said, deadpan. I realized afterward that I must've sounded like an idiot. She knows her freaking name.

"Um, yeah, and you are?" Great and she _doesn't _know mine.

"My Sam is Name, I mean, Sam, Sam I am, and I don't like green eggs and ham," WHAT? I mentally kicked myself and I can feel my face getting hot.

She cracks an amused smile, "Sam, hi," she sticks out her hand and I stare at it, my hands are stuffed in my pockets and I can only imagine how sweaty they are.

"medium coffee, black, Mr. Evans," the barista set my coffee on the counter and I used this opportunity to wipe my hands on my jeans before grabbing it. But I squeezed to tightly and the cap popped off, spilling scalding hot coffee down the front of my hoodie and my hand. The pain caused me to drop it and splash coffee on her shoes. I looked up mortified and in pain.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" She exclaimed, and grabbed some napkins. She began wiping off my hand while I stood there, frozen. She unzipped my hoodie and I shrugged out of it, "Is your hand okay?" I simply nodded and ran my other hand through my blonde hair. God I'm such a moron.

I take the hoodie and ball it up. "this was worse than when Han Solo was frozen in carbonite," I blurt out.

She looks at me, terribly confused at my reference to Star Wars. "oh?"

"sorry, it's from Star Wars, I do that sometimes, ramble about stuff that no one cares about," I toss the coffee cup into the nearby garbage and look down at my sneakers.

"no, I care, tell me about it," She smiles at me.

I narrow my eyes at her, "you don't need to make fun of me, you could just ignore me like the other girls do,"

"no, I," She starts but then clamps her mouth shut and shakes her head.

"I gotta go, get my hand looked at," I sputter and get out of there as fast as possible.

_**-Tina-**_

"When is Mercedes due back from her coffee break? " Kurt asks me, leaning against a rack of blouses.

I glance at my watch, "10 minutes?" I look back at him and suddenly his face perks up and his eyes start to sparkle.

"Blaine!" he exclaims, "and, Mike?"

I turn around to look at the entrance to our boutique, West Side Fashions. Two guys had just walked in and were smiling in Kurt's direction. The taller of the two had wispy black hair and gorgeous skin. The other had shapely eyebrows and a red bowtie. I recognized the taller one as Mike, from karaoke night. He's in music theory with Kurt and he's apparently an amazing dancer. He's also amazingly hot. I smile at him and twirl a purple strand of my hair around my finger.

"Mike, Blaine, this is Tina. She works here with me," Kurt pulls me to his side and I smile at Blaine. Who is smiling at Kurt and then I turn back to Mike who is smiling at me. The silence suddenly gets awkward and I choose to break it.

"So uh, what brings you two here?"

_**-Blaine-**_

"Mike needed help picking out a birthday present for his mom," I explain. "So I offered my fashion services, I also thought Kurt could help," I add, smiling at Kurt. His ears perk up when I say his name and I can't help but smirk at how cute he is. And how obviously interested in me he is.

"Yeah, I'm not very good at shopping for people," Mike says, a bit sheepishly.

"Does she like scarves?" Tina throws in. I smile in Mike's direction, already aware of his crush on her.

"uh yeah, she wears them, like, all the time," Mike says enthusiastically.

"perfect! follow me," Tina heads off to the accessories with Mike in tow and Kurt chuckles.

"What?" I ask him.

"Them, they're like perfect. Tina and Mike, Tike!" He says and laughs again. I nod in agreement because they really are cute together, and also because I don't know what to say that won't imply that I know another couple who would be perfect. Klaine? Sounds about right.

_**-Finn-**_

I couldn't sleep. I kept replaying the kiss over and over again. I'd never ever been kissed like that before. Not by Lucy, not by anyone. It was like, the world began and ended with Rachel's lips. Like her kisses were, oxygen, or something and I'd suffocate without them. I needed to kiss her again.

But I also felt horrible, because I'd cheated. I'm a cheater now and I could never take that back. I'd betrayed Lucy, and everything she'd said, every suspicion, every accusation, it was the truth now. I betrayed her.

I should have called Rachel and explained, but I couldn't, I can't. It's too embarrassing. I haven't had the mailman problem since freshmen year, I thought I'd gotten over it. But maybe it was just because I hadn't really been that, intimate, with anyone for awhile. The last time I went home, Lucy spent the whole time waitressing at Breadstix. No, it wasn't that, it was Rachel. Rachel did that to me, I knew in the back of my mind that I'd never get over that kiss.

There wasn't anything I wanted more than to kiss her again.

So there it was, that's my decision. I've got to end it with Lucy.

A knock came to my dorm room door. I dragged my feet over to answer it. It was probably Rachel, she's probably furious that I left her like I did.

"Rach, I'm so," I started as I opened the door. But once I looked at who was on the other side, I lost my voice. My mind raced and struggled to form words. Then I remembered to breathe. "L-lucy? What's going on?" My girlfriend stood outside my dorm, her face duller than I'd last seen it. Her eyes a darker, more sad shade of blue.

"Finn? Baby, we need to talk," Lucy pushed passed me and I shut the door.

**okay! thank goodness I got it all out :D i hope you liked it. Ooooh! It's Lucy! What now? :) You'll find out soon enough. The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update :D **

**read, review & repeat! ****sincerely, your anxious author :P**


	7. Loss

**Alright! A lot of anti-pregnancy reviews. Well, I hate to break it to you, but TA-DA. I hope this doesn't keep any of you from reading because I promise I have a plan for this and it DOES have a happy ending. So i don't want any of you to worry about it, it will all be clear soon enough. Enjoy!**

_-**Finn-**_

"What is it Lucy?" I ask her, hundreds of thoughts running through my head. But then Lucy smiles.

"I have amazing news," she paused, clasping her hands together in excitement. "I dropped out of OSU,"

My jaw dropped. "What, why!" dropped out? But I thought she loved it there, isn't that why she didn't come to New York with me?

"To be with you! We could get an apartment here together, I just miss being so far away," She took a step closer to me and I took a step back. "Aren't you happy?"

"Happy? Lucy you didn't even discuss this with me, I, I need to talk to you too, this, us I can't do this anymore. There's," I was about to tell her about Rachel, tell her that I couldn't be with her because I have feelings for Rachel. But the next words that came out of her mouth made my mind go blank.

"Finn, I'm pregnant," She was still smiling. Like this was the best thing that could have happened. "About four months actually,"

Four months ago it was summer, and I was home. It made sense. I looked at her stomach, but she still looked thin and trim as always.

"But you're not showing," I said, confused.

"I already went to a doctor," She said immediately, "I'm pregnant Finn, so, I need you to be here for me, okay?"

I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. I didn't even have time because as quickly as she arrived, she kissed my cheek and left my room.

It made sense, but it didn't make sense at all. Why would this happen, how could this happen?

-**_Puck-_**

"It's alright man, everything will be okay," Sam soothed as we all gathered around Finn. He sat, motionless on his bed with his head in his hands. His bitch of a girlfriend just dropped the P-bomb on him.

"What are you talking about, Skywalker? This is NOT gonna be okay, Finn's screwed!" I said, putting the truth out there. He may be my best friend, he's been totally screwed over.

"Puck!" Blaine scolded. "That's not what he needs to hear!" I just rolled my eyes, Blaine was like our mother of sorts. In the manliest way possible.

The door swung open, damn I forgot to lock it. Satan, Brit and Berry stormed in, followed by Kurt and Quinn.

"Finn! Why did I wake up to Lucy screaming hateful words at Rachel from my phone!" Kurt exclaimed.

Finn didn't move.

"What are you talking about?" Mike asked, sitting next to Finn.

"I woke up this morning and Lucy was in my apartment, shouting at Rachel from my phone, Why is Lucy here?"

"She came to drop a bomb on Finn," I say. "She's knocked up," Finn groaned.

"WHAT!" All of the girls and Kurt shouted. Berry's face paled, she turned on her heel and ran out of the room.

Sam sighed and followed her.

**_-Rachel-_**

Pregnant! Lucy? Finn? Oh my god, oh my god. This is definitely the worst-case scenario. Oh god I'm the other woman.

"Rach!" Sam's voice followed me down the hall, "Rach?" He asked, as he took me into his arms. Tears fell freely down my face and onto his tshirt. "shh," he soothed.

"she's pregnant! his, his, his _girlfriend_ is _pregnant! _I'm such an awful person!"

"no, no, Rach you're not an awful person, you just know what you want and there's nothing wrong with that. You had no way of knowing about the baby, part of me even doubts it's true," he says.

"Really? She would do that?" I look up at him and wipe my tear-soaked cheeks.

"she's kind of manipulative, and evil, I've met her a few times," He smooths my hair, "c'mon, we have to be there for Finn, I know you care about him," he says and he begins to guide me back to the room.

**_-Finn-_**

I know I should be trying to figure out what to do, how to tell my mother, but all I can think about is how this is affecting Rachel. "Where's Rach?" I ask.

"oooh no, I heard about the kiss, you two should not be alone right now. I don't trust you, Frankenteen" Santana says knowingly.

"I just want to talk to her, please?" I lift my head out of my hands and look at her helplessly. Brittany whispers in her ear and Santana's face softens. She nods and Sam enters the room with Rachel. Rachel glances around as if to ask everyone to leave. They do and it's just me and her.

"hey," she says, her voice cracking slightly.

"hi," I answer, my own voice coarse.

She moves over to the bed and kneels in front of me. "Finn, I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this, but I just want you to know that I care about you and I'm here for you, okay?" Her eyes look sad, and pleading. Like she needs to help me, to keep herself okay.

I nod, I want to tell her that I was going to break up with Lucy, I was going to tell her that there was someone else, but I don't want to hurt her. I keep looking at her lips. Words fall out of my mouth without warning, "it sucks that I can't kiss you again, because that's all I've been thinking about," I look back down at the floor now, ashamed of my word vomit.

I hear her sniffle, and she puts her hands on either side of my face, pulling it up to face her. One single tear falls slowly down her face.

"Me too Finn," she whispers. Then she stands up and looks at me one last time, sad for me, and for herself, and she slowly walks out the door.

I sit there for a few minutes before I realize that I'm crying too. Crying for Lucy, crying for Rachel, for what I just lost and for what I'm going to lose. I crying because I'm furious with myself and with Lucy for letting this happen and I'm furious with Rachel for making me want her so badly. Kurt is by my side and he's pushing me down on my bed. He places a blanket over me, turns off the light and leaves the room silently.

**_-Lucy-_**

I'm not a bad person. I just know what I need, and I need Finn. I know he was about to break up with me, I've seen it coming for some time now. I also know about his freaky interest in that Rachel. But what he doesn't know is that she's just a phase. This pregnancy is going help him realize that. He's supposed to be with me, and we're perfect. Everything is going to be perfect. Rachel is nothing, she's like a bad trend. He loves me, I'm the beautiful one, I deserve him. He's just too stupid to figure it out on his own. But he will soon enough.

I place a hand on my stomach, on my baby. "Thank you," I whisper, "you're going to fix everything,"

**so this chapter made me a little sad. I hope you all absolutely hate Lucy, because that's how it's supposed to be. This situation is a little familiar but not in the way you all will assume. hehehe, :) This was kind of an aftermath sort of chapter. The next one will get back into the action. I know many of you are not going to be pleased with the pregnancy, But I knew this was going to happen as soon as I started the story. Don't worry this story WILL have a happy ending. a happy FINCHELFILLED ending :)**

**read, review & repeat :P **

**sincerely your doting author,**


	8. Falling Out

**hey guys, this chapter was a little difficult to write, I know where I want to end up I'm just trying to figure out how to get there. So this may be a little rough, I apologize for that. But I hope you still like it!**

_**-Lucy—**_

Being in New York has been awful. It's dirty and crowded and I've never missed home so damn much before. But this is what it takes to get Finn to leave this god awful place and come home with me. I made an appointment at the local clinic to get an ultrasound picture so that maybe Finn would see this like the miracle that it is. I haven't exactly gone to a doctor yet, I just needed Finn to believe me.

The doctor squirted the cold ultrasound goop onto my tummy and moved that big technological thingy over it.

"Just having some trouble finding the heartbeat," He said, staring at the screen.

"It's there, don't worry," I said smiling. Things were finally falling into place. I'm pregnant and Finn will come home with me and I'll never have to hear about that freak Rachel again.

Thank god I've got eyes and ears around here, or Finn very well might have gotten away with cheating on me! If he thinks I don't know about their little tryst, he's got another thing coming but I'll deal with that later.

"Um, miss Karofsky I'm sorry but, there's no heartbeat,"

I just stared at him, he's got to be joking. "uh, what? Is it dead?" I exclaimed, my hands flying to my stomach.

"No! No, you, you were never pregnant, how far along did you think you were?" he asked me questioningly. Like I'm some idiot who doesn't know what pregnant means.

"four months, I took a pregnancy test last month, just to be safe and it was positive," I'm so confused. It did say positive right? Yeah, it did. This man is just stupid.

"It must have been a false positive, that can happen sometimes, I'm sorry," He packed away his equipment and wiped off my tummy.

"I'm, I'm not pregnant?" oh god, Finn CANNOT know about this. The first step, I need to start showing. I'll have to get pregnant somehow.

**_-Finn—_**

Lucy's not back from her appointment yet. She insisted that she do this alone, something about surprising me or whatever. There's so much we need to talk about. I still need to tell her about the kiss with Rachel. I mean if we're having a baby, we should have an honest relationship. She also needs a place to stay, a hotel won't work out forever.

And there's still Rachel. I don't know how I'm going to be able to face her in Music Theory every other day and smother the urge to kiss the living daylights out of her. She doesn't look at me the same, I don't lift up the world anymore. She looks at me like she's sorry. But I don't want her to be sorry, none of this is her fault.

My dorm room door flies open, do we NEVER lock it?, and Kurt storms in.

"You need to tell your mother Finn, she deserves to know!" He grabs my cell phone off of my desk and shoves it into my hand.

"I can't Kurt, I can't tell her yet, I'm not ready. Stop rushing me, I haven't even fully grasped the situation myself!" I put the phone in my pocket.

"Well she will have to know, eventually, you can't just keep this from her. You know me, when we go see her I'm not going to be able to keep my mouth shut,"

He was right, he's a terrible gossip. We go home to visit for Christmas, which is next month. I have a month to tell her, but I should try to do it as soon as possible.

"The best time to do it, is now," He said, reading my mind.

I simply nod, "soon, I promise,"

**_-Rachel—_**

It doesn't surprise me that Lucy had people watching Finn for her. But still, breaking into Kurt's phone to find my number? She's way more crazy than I expected. She warned me to stay away from Finn, but she clearly doesn't know me. I never back down from a fight, and I always win.

But at this point, I don't think I want to win. Not when there are potential children involved. That just wouldn't be right. I thought maybe, her warnings would be it, that she'd just avoid me or something. But from the way she's glaring at me from across the supermarket, I don't think she's done.

Oh no, here she comes.

"Hello Hobbit," She smirks, looking down on me.

"Lucy," I nod. Ignoring her insult. "How's Finn?" I ask her, even though I already know the answer, he's a mess.

"Frankly, that's none of your concern,"

"Actually it is, he's my friend and I care about him, that's more than I can say for you,"

"How dare you! I know about how you threw yourself at him the other day! So don't pull that friendship crap with me. You need to get a grip, let him be happy, we're having a baby so back the hell off!"

"threw myself at him? You know what? You're right,"

She smiles smugly, but I'm not finished.

"He does deserve to be happy, but he never will be. Not with you smothering him! You have no idea what a wonderful, talented person he is, and you don't care to know. You don't love him, you love the idea of him and it's terrible what you are going to go through," nodding at her stomach sympathetically, "but it sucks even more that it's going to drag him down too," and with that I set the box of cereal I was holding back on the shelf and march out of the store.

**_-Puck-_**

"She tried to get to you, eh, Berry?" I flopped onto my bed. Rachel sat across from me on Finn's. Ever since we got over our little mishap, I found out she's actually a pretty cool chick. When you block out her ranting, that is.

"Yeah, she had the nerve to confront me, in the supermarket! Of all places! and tell me to back off," I get why she's upset, I really do. But I gotta be straight with her.

"Well, Berry, she _is _preggers with Finn's kid, that gives her a little say doesn't it? I mean, if it were you in her shoes, would you want another girl sniffing around while you were preparing to have a mini-Finn?"

she sighs, "No, I guess not," she shakes her head, "but she's so frustrating! There's a reason that Finn kissed me, and he's so broken up about this,"

"I know, he's like my brother, and this whole shitfest sucks. You just gotta roll with it," I shrug and I can hear the lock in the door turning. "Speaking of Finnessa, Hey man!" I announce as he walks through the door.

Berry stands quickly, "Finn, I thought you were in class," she sputters.

Finn looks at me, "I was, it's, over," he looks from me to Rachel and back to me, "what's goin on?"

"Berry and I were just chillin, she's pretty okay," She gives me a look, like I said something wrong and then smiles back at Finn.

"Uh,huh, you sure?" Finn just sets his bag on the desk and walks over to me, like I had to explain myself.

"dude I swear, and why would it matter anyway, Berry's hot, there's no reason I shouldn't be allowed seconds," I nod at Berry and she storms over and smacks my arm.

"Noah!"

Finn rolls his eyes at me and looks at Rachel, his eyes going cloudy like a doe-eyed freak. Jesus he's lovesick. "whatever," he says, "coach wants to see you,"

I sigh, Coach Bieste and her strict "no fooling around in the locker rooms" rule. again.

**_-Finn-_**

Puck left the room, mumbling to himself. Leaving Rach and I alone, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"So, you and Puck, you're friends now?" I ask her, even though, a tiny part of me suspects that something more might have been about to go down. I mean, they fooled around once before, what's stopping them from doing it again.

"Yeah, I mean, we're over what happened. So, now, I guess we are kind of friends," She said, smiling a little, the corners of her mouth shifting up as she lifts her head to meet my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I say, just barely above a whisper.

"I know, it's okay," she says, she starts to walk by me to leave but I grab her arm.

"I don't want this you know, I want you," My chin is trembling. The truth about her always rips through me.

"don't," she whispers. Her voice quivering. "Don't say that, it only makes this harder," She looks up at me, "just leave it alone, okay?"

I simply nod and let her walk out.

**_-Puck-_**

"A tutor? What the hell do I need a tutor for?" I exclaim, flailing my arms in the air.

"Puckerman, you're failing your history class, if you don't bring that up soon, I have to bench you. I don't want to bench you, we need you, so the school assigned you a tutor," Coach Bieste handed me an envelope and crossed her arms.

I tore it open, "Quinn Fabray?" I reread the name. Quinn! Quinn's my tutor? That's so perfect, Quinn Fabray prepare to have your world rocked by the one, the only, Puckasaurus.

Coach nods at me and motions for me to leave. I rip the door open and come face to face with, speak of the hot blonde devil, my tutor. She doesn't look half as excited as I am.

"Coach Bieste what is this? I have to tutor, him?" She motions to me, "you know him right? Noah Puckerman?" She wrinkles her nose in disgust. But then she looks at me and her eyes glaze over, what is that look suppose to mean? Oh, I know that look. She can try to resist me, but it won't be long before she gives in to that blatant desire burning behind her green eyes.

"It's final miss Fabray, now both of you, scoot," Coach looks back down at her playbook and we both slip out of the office.

"looks like it's gonna be me and you babe," I wink at her and run my hand through my hawk.

"You better behave yourself, as a cheerio it is very important for this school to have a winning football team and I am well aware of how slim our chances of winning are with you on the bench. Take this seriously and don't ever call me babe, got it?"

The look in her eyes makes me stop walking, "uh, got it," wait what? What the fuck is this chick doing to me?

**_-Santana-_**

I think I'm ready, ready for everyone to know. My friends, my family, my teachers, everyone. I like girls and I'm proud.

Suddenly someone bumps harshly into my shoulder, "hey! watch it!" I sneer at them. The redheaded girl turns and looks at me, she smirks and has a hand on her hip.

"watch where _you're _going, dyke," Her friend erupts into laughter and they continue down the hall.

The word echoes in my head and fury is radiating through my body. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, you think just because you like girls, that means you can," she rolls her eyes, "rub up against us in the hallway?"

"ew, first, I wouldn't be interested in your ugly self if you were made of chocolate and second, back the fuck off before I kick your self righteous ass!" I tower over her petite frame and for a second I see fear flash behind her eyes, but it quickly melts away into something darker, hatred.

She spits four simple words at me like they were on fire. "you're going to hell,"

"fuck you!" I spit back. I pull back my fist but then I feel hands on my arms and I spin around to knock someone the fuck out. Suddenly I'm staring into Brit's frightened eyes.

"San, it's okay, she's not worth it," she says quietly. I lower my arm and she takes my hand.

"good, at least someone's finally got her on a leash, she's like a dog, dirty and," she doesn't get to finish. Brit's hand flew out and slapped her across the face so fast, no one knew what happened until the red head was back against the wall holding her face.

"C'mon San," Brit leads me outside the building and we start walking toward our Dorm Hall.

"How did she know?" I ask her. I'd only told Rachel, but she would never betray me like that.

"I don't know San, Rach wouldn't say anything," I nod, and we're completely silent for the rest of the walk.

**the santana part was hard, i wish things could just be perfect in the land of britana, but people are mean. But anyway, I told you the pregnancy thing would be okay. Now we just have to wait and see if it blows up in Lucy's face. Maybe it will, or maybe she'll find a way to get around it...mwahhahah. only time will tell. For quick it's obvious that something will go down, how easily will quinn fall to pucks charm? or will it be the other way around? the next chapter will be a break from the drama, it will be full of samcedes, klaine, tike, & quick. It'll be like the calm before the storm :) So be prepared for some fights and perhaps some situations that will require a change of rating? that part rests on your shoulders. Do we want mature situations? you're choice readers.**

**read, review & repeat! sincerely your very excited author. :)**


	9. First Date

**Alright, I have spent the last week trying to come up with something for you guys. Here is some drama free tike, klaine, quick- ness. I'm becoming more Quick, Finchel, Britana oriented. So Samcedes, Tike & Klaine are going to take a backseat. There are pros and cons to this. The bad news is, Tike, Klaine and Samecedes won't be mentioned as much. Good news, they won't suffer any dramatic blows to their relationships. Enjoy!**

**_-Quinn-_**

It's our first session and he's late. Almost half an hour late. I've just been sitting here in the library staring at the clock while that creepy underclassman with the jewfro stares at _me. _

The library doors bust open and he stumbles in, sweaty and out of breath. He quickly makes his way over to the table and flops down into a chair next to me.

"I'msosorryI'mlate," He pants.

I roll my eyes, "Whatever, I haven't been here long, let's just get through this hmm?" I open my history book and turn to the chapter about women's rights.

"Since when are we learning about that crap?" He whines.

I stare at him, he's such an idiot. "We've been studying this chapter for the last two weeks. We were assigned a seven page essay on it last Tuesday!" I shake my head and facepalm.

"Oh, shit then," He slumps in his seat, realizing how obviously screwed he is. This is going to be rough.

"How do you expect to pass this class? Do you even _go_ to class?" I throw my arms up in frustration. He's hopeless.

"Yeah, I go, I just, sleep, most of the time," He says, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Or, I'm distracted,"

"By WHAT?"

"you?"

I'm taken aback by this. Not by the fact that he's hitting on me, I expected that. But by the fact that he's not smirking at me when he says it. He actually looks kind of, scared.

"I mean...what?" He sputters.

"I distract you," I say, trying to comprehend his angle.

"You surprise me, you're so, beautiful and smart and, you're real, you know?"

"real," I repeat. Beautiful, yeah, I've been hearing that all my life. Smart, I guess I mean I _am _a tutor. But real? What does that even mean?

What is he trying to do?

"What kind of game is this?" I snarl at him, slam the book shut and shove it into my bag. I look at him one last time and quickly rush out of the library.

**_-Puck-_**

Well that didn't go at all as I'd hoped. I'd planned to seduce her, not piss her off. Then again with her it was sort of a coin toss. One wrong move and she'd get all ice queen on me. She looked genuinely confused though, and I know what confused looks like.

I was being honest, which isn't something I'm used to. What the fuck did she mean, game?

She just left. That creepy jewfro kid is smirking at me. I think I'll toss him in the dumpster on my way out of here.

This is why I don't get serious with chicks. They go all bat shit crazy on you.

**_-Sam-_**

"Professor Shue?" I tap on the door to the Music room softly.

"Mr. Evans, come on in, what can I do for you?" The campus Drama Director smiles at me and ushers me into the room.

"Uh, I was wondering if I could ask for some advice," I say, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans.

"Sure Sam, what is it?" He sits at his desk and shuffles some papers together.

"Well, you've been married for awhile,"

"Seven years," He says proudly.

"Your wife, how'd you get her to, not think you were a dork?" I mumble.

"Emma's as much of a dork as I am, Sam, everyone has their quirks. The trick is to find someone who loves you in spite of them," He chuckles a little, and glances at a picture on his desk from his wedding. His redheaded wife staring back at him lovingly.

"Well there's this girl, and I like her, but I'm just worried that she'll just see my, uh quirks, and won't care to see the rest of me," I gesture to myself. Let's face it, I'm not unattractive. I'm ripped, I mean totally ab-ulous. But girls don't see that, they just hear me speaking na'vi or see me camping out at the premier of Harry Potter and write me off.

"Just be yourself Sam, but put yourself out there. If she doesn't see what a catch you are, then she's not worth it," He stands and claps a hand on my shoulder.

I nod, sheepishly, "Thanks," His advice makes sense, I know that I won't be able to stifle myself, my quirks will bust out whether I want them to or not. So I have no choice but to be myself, I can either put myself out there and see if she's into me. Or I can hide like a bitch. Sam I am, Bitch I am not.

I wave at Mr. Shue on my way out the door and walk across the quad toward the parking lot. I'm going to the mall.

_**-Tina-**_

"you sure it's okay, are you going to be able to handle the store on your own?" I ask mercedes for the hundredth time.

She sighs and arranges the scarves on the display by color. "Tina, once again, I'll be fine. It's a slow day anyway, go, go enjoy your date," She laughs.

"Okay, okay, I just don't want you to feel left out,"

"Oh please, I'll be fine. I've got so much soul, I count for three people," She puts a hand on her hip and says in her diva voice.

"that's true," I smile, "alright, well Kurt and I will be back in a couple hours, wish us luck!" I shout as I walk out the back door to the store, leaving my West Side Fashions smock behind the counter.

Kurt's SUV is parked by the curb and Blaine is sitting in the passengers seat. They're laughing and I can already tell that they're great together.

My door opens before I get to it and Mike climbs out, holding the door open for me. He smiles sweetly and I blush.

"Your chariot awaits," He whispers as he takes my hand and helps me into the seat.

_**-Blaine-**_

Tina and Mike are adorable. They're both so sweet and, well yes, they're both asian, they're like an asian infused power couple! Asian Fusion!

I laugh at my own cleverness and They look at me strangely from across the table. We agreed on a small Italian place a few blocks from the store. It smells like garlic but in a warm, authentic kind of way.

Kurt smiles next to me. Like he understood why I was laughing. Maybe he laughs to himself too. I find myself wondering these things about him all night. Does he snore? Does he sing when he's alone in the car? Why does he wear so many layers? How long has he been openly gay? I'd ask him, if we were alone. But the whole double date thing is much less intimidating.

"So are we ready to order? I hear the chicken alfredo here is delish!" Kurt gushes, and I find myself chuckling again.

There is absolutely no mistaking this kid's sexuality. I've been able to pass as straight before, but there's no way he could. But I know he's not doing it to be flamboyant, like many other homosexuals I know. It's simply the way he is, and I love it.

"Blaine? Are you ready to order man?" Mike nods toward my menu. I glance at it and settle on the chicken alfredo, I'd also heard it was good.

**_-Sam-_**

The door chimes when I walk into the store. She immediately looks up from the counter. "Welcome to West Side Fashions, do you need any help with anything?"

"yes," I say, my confidence surprising myself. "I need you to go on a date, with me,"

She leans against the counter, "Well damn white boy, it's about time,"

I raise my eyebrows at her, "well I figure since I spilled coffee on your shoes, it's the least I could do,"

"You think I didn't see you checking me out at the karaoke joint? Normally your weird sci-fi references would turn me off," she says.

I sigh, of course.

"But I find them kind of adorable, so I'm going to give you a shot," She smiles and walks around the counter.

"really?" my voice cracks a little, kind of shocked that this is going so well.

She steps in front of me and takes out a pen. She scribbles some numbers on my palm and then leans close to my face.

"You better call me, white boy," She whispers before kissing my cheek.

I can feel myself blush a dark red and I stumble a little when I try to make a smooth exit.

She smiles at my clumsiness, and waves me off.

That's right. Bitch I am not.

**Okay, I might be able to get another chapter out before the weekend is over, I have a paper to write and some other stuff to take care of, but I might have time. But if not, it could be a little while before I can update again, I'll try to sometime this week, I'll do my best I promise! I hope you liked the cuteness here, I really like writing through Sam, I just think he's so dorky and cute. I'm sensing that y'all want finchel action. So I'll start off slow when it comes time for it. I dunno how well I'll be able to write it but we'll try it on and if it works maybe I'll write more. We'll see. **

**Read, Review & Repeat! sincerely your swamped, but determined author. **


	10. Finally

__**I've been on a major glee kick. That's what happens when they make me wait too long for a new episode. But the more glee I watch, the more ideas I get. So I guess I should thank the glee-ators for making us wait? No, I'm still pissed about it. But anyway enjoy!**

_**-Finn-**_

"What's going on with you Lucy?" I gently push her away from me after she tried to jump me on my way out of the shower. It's been almost two weeks since she showed up and she's been crazier than usual lately. Always trying to get up on this, which is weird because usually it's me who does all the trying.

"It's all these baby hormones, I just _want_ you all the time," She grins, and tries to kiss me again.

"Lucy I'm really not in the mood," which is true. I'm not in the mood, not for _her _anyway. "Listen, we need to talk about, this," I gesture towards her stomach.

"What is it Finnybear?" I wince at her nickname, it makes me feel like a child.

"Lucy I can't be with you, I'll help you out with the baby and everything but, it doesn't feel right to be with you just because you're pregnant, it's not fair to me and it's not fair to you,"

She steps away from me in shock. "what, no, no you can't break up with me, I'm, I'm pregnant, no," She looks up at me, her eyes watering and her hands trembling.

But I don't feel anything, I don't know if that makes me a bad person but I just want her to leave.

"Lucy you haven't even let me be a part of this, you go to the appointments alone and you refuse to let me tell my parents,"

She cuts me off, "You can come to the next one,"

"fine, but Lucy, I still can't be with you," I sigh and go back into the bathroom, but before I shut the door I hear her whisper.

"we'll see about that,"

**_-Rachel-_**

"Calm down I'm coming!" I shout as I blindly make my way to my dorm room door. It's 2AM and someone is pounding on it like a maniac.

I flip on the light and groan when it hurts my eyes. After they've adjusted I glance around the room. San must've stayed with Brit last night, unless the pounding is her and she forgot her key.

"San?" I question, my hand on the door knob.

"No, it's," I know that voice and I yank the door open before he even says his name. "Finn," he adds when he sees me.

That's when I remember that I just woke up and I probably look like a yeti right now. My hands fly to my hair and I start desperately trying to tame it.

He grabs my wrists, "No, you're beautiful," We lock eyes for a moment, soaking each other in.

"Finn, why are you here?" I sigh.

"I broke up with Lucy yesterday, and I haven't been able to sleep," He leans against the door frame and his hand slides from my wrist to my hand.

"You miss her?" I whisper, wow, I don't know if he's doing this to hurt me or if he just had no where else to go. But he squeezes my hand a little and I look back up at him.

"No, I miss you, I couldn't wait until class tomorrow to see you,"

"Finn, you just got out of a, pretty serious, relationship, you're probably feeling a little lonely,"

"Rach, I don't feel lonely, I feel free and I've been missing you all week," He laces his fingers with mine and brings my hand up to his lips.

"I've missed you too," I smile as I lean into him. He smells like Finn, and I'm losing all of my self control with him standing there.

"Can I come in?" He asks sheepishly. His smiles his lopsided grin that I love and I let go of his hand and grab onto his tshirt.

"Please do," I pull him inside and he kicks the door closed.

I pull him down and his lips are on mine. It's just as breathtaking as the first time, but I'm ready for it. His hands are on my waist, pulling me closer. My arms wind around his neck and His hands slide down my waist, over my ass and pull me up by my thighs and I wrap my legs around him.

He carries me over to my bed and lays me down carefully. Hovering above me, gazing at me below him.

"what? what's wrong?" I ask him, nervous that he noticed something about me he didn't like.

"Absolutely nothing, you're perfect," and with those words, I melted.

_**-Finn-**_

I blink awake and slowly take in this unfamiliar room. Then I remembered last night.

"Finn, you're awake," I turn to my left and there's Rachel, standing in front of her mirror pulling her hair into a ponytail. She's wearing my tshirt, and nothing else. I swallow hard.

"Yeah," I stretch my arms out and She crawls back onto the twin bed.

"When's your first class?" she asks me, while trailing her finger across my bare chest.

"Uh, not until 1, you?" Her finger leaves a trail of goose bumps on my skin.

"My only class is Music Theory today, at 4. I usually have my math class but the professor has a hangover again," She shrugs and sits up on the bed. "Do you," she starts but then looks down at her hand on my chest.

"Do I what?"

"Do you, want to stay here with me?" She says, hope twinkling in her eyes.

"Yeah, Rach, I planned on it, I mean, if you wanted me to," I smile sheepishly "Last night, it meant a lot, to me at least,"

"It meant a lot to me too Finn," She looks down at her hand on my chest again and smiles, "So much,"

"So I'll stay," I open my arm and she slips easily underneath it, cuddling up next to me.

-**_Rachel-_**

"Do you think it was too soon? It just sort of happened," I sat on the couch in Kurt's apartment with the girls, plus Kurt.

"I don't really want to discuss my brother's sex life," Kurt said, dramatically covering his ears.

"I dunno Rach, I mean, he's having a baby with someone else," Quinn replied.

"Yeah, you were careful right?" Tina added, concerned.

"Oh my god yes, of course," I told them. "The modern girl is always prepared,"

They nodded in relief.

"We don't need two mini lerches running around," San dug.

I rolled my eyes.

"How was it?" Mercedes questioned leaning in, the other girls followed suit.

"I'm gonna go call Blaine," Kurt stood and raced out of the room.

We giggled in his expense and then I took a deep breath, "It was amazing, he was amazing,"

"I knew it," Brit said quietly. "He's too tall to not be good,"

We all stared at her and San patted her hand, giving me an apologetic look.

"Talent is measured by size, the more of you there is, the better you are," Brit shrugged.

"But I'm small and I'm talented," I say, crossing my arms.

"There's an exception to every rule," Brit replied, like it was the obvious answer.

"What happened after, that could tell you a lot about whether it was too soon," Tina changed the subject.

"He slept over and then in the morning he told me it meant a lot to him and he stayed with me until his first class,"

"aw, he sounds sweet," Mercedes gushed.

"Yeah, and what about you?" I say back to her, cocking my eyebrow. "Sam talked my ear off, and that's a lot coming from me, about your date last night!"

Mercedes smiled ear to ear, "He's so cute, and yeah, he knows a lot about star wars and Harry Potter and whatever, that doesn't matter because he was so charming and adorable last night. I saw him, I mean I took a good look at him and the boy is _fine_," She emphasized and everyone shot out questions. Did he pay for dinner? Where'd he take you? What does he drive?

But I couldn't pay attention, because I'd just recieved a text that said

_hey im out of class wanna come over? -Finn_

and all I could think about was an excuse to get over there.

**_-Finn-_**

I answered the door and Rach was immediately in my arms. "Hey," I say as I catch her. "I missed you,"

"I missed you too," She almost whispers.

"How was your afternoon?" I ask her as I let her in and we chill out on my bed.

"Good, I had some girl talk about our night,"

This caught my ear. "Oh really? Anything special?"

"Not really, they asked the usual questions, were we careful, were you any good, what happened after," she says casually.

wait, was I any good? "Back up, what was the second one?"

"Were you any good?" she says innocently.

"What'd you say," I ask her. Risking a serious blow to my ego.

She shrugs, "I said you were so-so," oh man, so-so? Where is 'so-so' on the chart of sexual ability?

"oh," I just say. She starts laughing, LAUGHING!

"I'm kidding, I told her the truth," She then straddles my lap and I forget the conversation. "I told her you were amazing,"

Amazing, aw yeah. I smile at her, "really, amazing?"

"Completely," she whispers and kisses me.

suddenly the screen to my phone lights up.

"I'm going to take a shower," Rachel says to me and then leans close to my ear and whispers, "come and join me in 5 minutes,"

I shudder. I actually SHUDDER. Her voice is castrating, wait that's definitely not right, capiv-captivating. I just nod.

She hops off my lap and the bed and skips into the bathroom, humming to herself.

I grab my phone

_You're with the Hobbit aren't you? Just because you dumped me doesn't mean we're over- Lucy_

I shudder again, but for a completely different reason.

But then I delete the message, shrug it off and hurry into the bathroom.

I can hear her singing before I open the door.

_I love him_

_but everyday I'm learning_

_all my life _

_I've only been pretending_

_without me_

_his world would keep on turning_

_a world that's full of happiness_

_that I have never known_

_I love him_

_I love him_

_I love him_

_but only on my own_

I take a deep breath and enter the room, once the steam clears I can see her behind the glass door of the shower.

The most beautiful, most talented person I've ever set my eyes on

and she's mine. I smile as I tug off my shirt.

**That was fun to write. Not gonna lie. **

**the song is On My Own from Les Miserables.**

**There's your finchel-ocity, That was my subtle T-rated swing at it. Let me know what you thought and any suggestions or whatever.**

**sneak peak: someone gets caught, someone gets jealous & someone might get kicked out**

**read, review, repeat! sincerely your inspired author**


	11. Exposed

**okay everyone, this is longer than the other chapters, a lot happens here. I tried to answer some questions, I hope you are all satisfied :) enjoy!**

_**-Lucy-**_

"God Jacob why are you here again?" I ask him, exasperated. "I'm in New York, I can keep an eye on Finn myself now,"

"I just figured you should know I saw him go into Rachel's dorm room last night," He handed me my fake baby bump. I took it from his disgusting grasp and clasped the velcro around my waist, pulling my babydoll top over it and examining myself in the mirror. "Say the word and I'll alert an advisor,"

"No need for that," I tell him, rolling my eyes at his disappointment. I told him to keep an eye on Finn, not become obsessed with Rachel. "I told you, I'm here now, I no longer require your services," I pulled out my cell phone and shot a quick warning text to Finn. It's so not over between us and soon, he'll come crawling back to me. "Tell me everything you know about Rachel Berry, it's not enough to simply watch them together, I need to be able to get inside her head,"

"Oh, this could take awhile," Jacob Ben Israel smirked and his jewfro quivered at even the mention of Rachel's name. What the hell was with this girl? Is her enormous nose some kind of freaky jewish aphrodisiac?

"Well, organize this information somehow, I don't have time to listen to you sing about the way her hair smells,"

"which is amazing by the way," He interjects and I snarl at him.

"Just go, Jacob, I have to attend a doctor's appointment with Finn in an hour,"

"How are you going to do that? You're kind of lacking in the pregnancy department," He reminds me.

"Don't you think I would have figured that out BEFORE I made the appointment? Jesus you're an idiot," I spit at him, he recoils and nods furiously.

"It's not going to be a problem," I continue, "I paid the OB to print off a fake ultrasound picture with my name and everything on it, and I'm going to distract Finn while it's 'taken',"

He nods again, "okay, well let me know when you want the dish on Rachel," He throws one last look at my stomach and then leaves.

**_-Finn-_**

"That's the head and those are his little hands," Lucy coos over the little black and white picture of our baby.

"Wait, is it upside down? Did you say he?" I turn the picture, trying to find these so called hands. This is supposed to be my baby, apparently my son. Isn't this supposed to be some emotional experience or something? I'm staring at this picture, from Lucy's name, to the little outline of the head and I can't make a connection. I just feel like I'm staring at a piece of paper, not my kid.

"Yeah, it's a boy," She sighs, and rests a hand on her bump. I glance at her hand.

"Can I touch it?" I ask her, I haven't felt her belly at all, I wonder if he's kicking yet.

"no," she says quickly, "That's always creeped me out, everyone trying to touch pregnant bellies. It's weird,"

"oh," I say, disappointed.

She smiles at me, "maybe when it's a little bigger,"

I nod at her. At least she's not trying to pounce on me anymore. My hip vibrates and I pull out my phone.

**Hey what are you up to? I miss you - Rachel**

I smile as I read her name.

_I miss u 2, just got back from Lucys appt - Finn_

she responds almost immediately.

**oh, okay. I'll talk to you later then - Rachel**

I stare at the words, confused. Why can't she talk to me? Just because I'm with Lucy?

"Who's that, the homewrecker?" Lucy says casually.

"No, it's Rachel," I respond, flustered. Why would a construction worker be texting me?

Lucy rolls her eyes at me. Then tucks the picture into her purse. "We need to go look at baby stuff sometime this weekend, I'll text you,"

"uh, okay? What baby stuff?"

"You know, clothes, furniture, all that. I read that browsing together will help get us both excited for his arrival,"

"oh, alright then," I slip my phone back into my pocket, I'll go to Rachel's room after Lucy leaves.

**_-Rachel-_**

I sigh and toss my phone onto my bed. He's with Lucy again, doctors appointments, shopping, "baby bonding time". He's with her a lot now, and it's kind of driving me crazy.

Calm down Rachel, she's having his baby, she has a right to spend time with him.

_hey, r u in ur room? - Finn_

**yeah - Rachel**

_b right there - Finn_

I smile at his text and set my phone on top of my dresser. At the end of the day, it's you he wants to see.

A couple minutes later he knocks on the door.

I pull it open "hey Fi-" I'm interrupted by his lips crashing to mine. He pushes me backwards into the room and I shut the door blindly behind him.

"I missed you," He whispers before kissing my neck. Moments like these make the times he's with her worth it.

**_-Santana-_**

I settle into my desk for my English class and immediately the girl in the desk next to me gets up and moves to the back of the room. I look at her, annoyed. This has been happening to me all week. People don't want to sit with me in class. Cheerios undermining my authority. Underclassmen scowling at me in the halls. It's getting really fucking irritating.

"hey dyke-asaurus, can I borrow a pencil?" I hear a guy whisper behind me.

"yeah, after I shove it up your ass, prick," I hurl back at him.

He goes quiet but his friend proceeds to interrupt me everytime I open my mouth to talk. If the professor in this class weren't the only one I hadn't slept with, I would have beaten this kids ass and gotten away with it.

I leave the room when we're dismissed and make my way to the quad to meet Brit for lunch. I see her quickly, sitting on the steps in front of the English building. "Hey Brits," I sit down next to her.

She simply looks up at me and I see the tears rolling down her face. Anger boils up inside of me immediately.

"Who the fuck did it,"

"it's,o-okay S-san," She says between sniffles. "J-just one g-guy,"

"What'd he do," I say stiffly. Ready to murder someone without a second thought.

"He s-said that girls l-like me just n-need to find the r-right man to straight-ten them out," She leans her head on my shoulder and her sobs die down.

"Rachel got in his face and did her thing, they guy walked away but everyone was looking at me, like he was right," she continued, "We didn't choose this, it just happened," she whispered.

The guy who harrassed me in class walks down the steps and stops next to where we're sitting, "Get a fucking room at least, it's bad enough I had to catch you making out in the gym, I don't want to see it all the damn time,"

"What the fuck is your deal?" I shout at him, "Just leave us alone,"

"Oh I have no problem with Brit, she's, well, she's Britney and it's your fault she's like this now. You twisted her mind for your own disgusting lifestyle, it's a good thing I warned everyone of your ways before you infected the entire cheerleading squad,"

I winced at his words. "You're the one who told?" I say quietly.

He just nods, shoots one hateful glance at me and a sympathetic one at Brit and walks the rest of the way down the steps.

**_-Rachel-_**

I'm standing outside Finn's door, listening to them discussing the baby. Finn texted me and asked me to come over, but apparently Lucy took this time to stop by for a visit too.

I hear Finn sigh, and say "We can talk about this tomorrow, Rachel's coming over and you should go,"

Lucy snorts, "I don't want her around our baby Finn," I roll my eyes.

"Lucy, that's not fair, I just, just go, we'll talk about it tomorrow,"

The knob on the door turns and I quickly back up and round the corner in the hallway. The door closes behind Lucy and I hear her footsteps the opposite way down the hall. Suddenly I hear a thud and I step out around the corner, Lucy has fallen and quickly jumps up.

I gasp quietly when I see her stomach seemingly twisted so the "baby bump" is on her hip. She grabs it and turns it back facing in front of her and then adjusts the, STRAP? in the back! She's Faking? FAKING? Oh my my god.

I text Finn.

**Hey, I've got a huge paper due so I can't come over, I'll see you tomorrow? - Rachel**

I can't tell him. Yet, I need to figure this out first. This is so screwed up.

_I understand I miss u tho C u 2moro - Finn_

"Hello Rachel,"

I look up from my phone to see a boy about my height with huge puff of red hair. "yes Jacob?"

"Were you just spying on Finn? Do you think he'd appreciate it if you thought he didn't trust him?"

"Excuse me but you know nothing about my relationship, he invited me here. Lucy just hadn't left yet," I say to him simply.

"So why do you appear to be walking away? See something you didn't like,"

"No, Jacob, this is none of your business," I glare at him and brush past him, quickly cutting across the grass outside to get to my dorm. I need to talk to San, she'll know what to do.

**_-Santana-_**

"I don't know what to do!" I exclaim, Rach rubbing my back soothingly. She came bursting into our dorm, looking like she saw a ghost. I could tell she was about to erupt into one of her famous rants but then she saw me, crying quietly on my bed and she snapped her mouth shut, a first for her, and hurried over to me.

"Everyone knows and they all act like I've got the plague, which isn't so awful I suppose but I just feel so alone," I continue.

Rachel nods, "I'm so sorry San, that idiot had no right to say anything to anyone,"

"Thank you for sticking up for Brit," I rest my head on her shoulder and snif the tears away. I straighten myself up and turn to her, "you wanted to say something when you came in here,"

"OH yes! This will distract you, get this, Lucy's FAKING! She's got one of those padded pregnant stomachs on!"

My mouth drops open. "no!" I gasp. "That bitch! Imma get all Lima Heights on her unfertilized ass!"

Rachel laughs and hugs me. "oh! I gotta get to cheerio practice!" I exclaim and Rachel nods at me. I grab my gym back and rush out the door and down the steps of the building.

The athletic center is just across the quad. I pull my jacket tighter around me as snow slowly flurries around. The first snow of the season came last week, but the snow keeps melting away when it rains.

I enter the center and walk down the long hallway towards the locker rooms. I can hear the chatter of the other cheerios changing at the end of the hall. They've been just as weird around me as my classmates. So I sit down on an empty bench outside the locker rooms until they're done. Or maybe I can quickly change in the boy's locker room.

I glance around, the hallway is empty. I poke my head into the boy's locker room, it's dead silent.

Hurrying I slip inside and toss my bag onto a bench. Just then the door flies open. Shit, someone caught me.

"What's it going to take to get you to be normal?" The guy from class today, Garret, saunters in a leans against a set of lockers in front of me.

"What's it going to take to get you to mind your own fucking business?" I retort.

"All it takes is the right man babe, and I'm the man for the job," He takes a step towards me and I wrinkle up my nose in disgust.

"You're not really my type, I'm not into ignorance,"

His fists clench up, "Don't push me bitch,"

"oh please, you think bullying me is going to change who I am? You can't threaten the lesbian out of me, just like I can threaten the stupidity out of you! Now back the fuck off before I maim you,"

"oh yeah," He whistles, and I narrow my eyes in confusion. Suddenly two more guys walk into the locker room. Both wearing varsity jackets, football players. I can feel something unfamiliar go off in the pit of my stomach. I'm terrified. I could probably get away with the Garret, but I can't defend against three.

"You're really going to gang up on a girl?" I ask them, the vicious tone still in my voice.

"You need to learn a lesson sweetheart," I wince when he calls me sweetheart. It makes me cower. Santana Lopez is not a coward. I simply stiffen my back and plant my feet.

I raise my fists, "bring it,"

suddenly all three of them bust into laughter. I glare at the Garret.

"We're not here to fight you," He takes another firm step toward me and realization dawns on me. So I do the one thing a girl can do in a time like this. I reel my foot back and spring it forward, slamming him square in the business and then I scream like I've never screamed before.

Garret falls to his knees, cursing and the other two charge me, slamming me against the lockers, one pressing his hand tightly over my mouth. The other grabs my hair, holding my head against the cold metal.

I can hear footsteps rushing down the hall and coming into the room.

Coach Sylvester freezes, with Coach Bieste right behind her. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?"

The two holding on to me let go instantly, the pressure I was putting against their hands gives way and I fall to the floor. Quickly regaining my strength to stand and hurry to Coach Sylvester's side.

"Boys, would you like to tell me what's going on?" Coach Bieste asks, anger and accusation dripping from her voice.

They stammer, all three of them glaring at me. The football coach grabs two of them by their jacket collars and forces them out of the room, then pulling Garret to his feet and thrusting him out with the others. She turns to me, "I'm so terribly sorry for what they've done, and for what they could have done," She shakes her head, ashamed and leaves the room.

Sue Sylvester, our quick-witted, fearless leader is speechless. She silently wraps an arm around my shoulders and leads me from the room.

I start to explain but she just shh's me and nods, understandingly. Good, I don't want to talk about it.

**_-Finn-_**

Rach said she has something important she needs to tell me. So I'm gonna go see her after I visit with Lucy for our "baby bonding time". She makes me go to her hotel room once a day for an hour or so and we talk to and about the baby. She wanted to name it Lucy if it was a girl, but since it's a boy, Luke. I'm fighting it as much as I can.

I'm a little early but her door is unlocked. I slip inside and I can hear her humming to herself in her bathroom. The door opens and she steps out, wearing a sports bra and yoga pants. For a second I can't move. I frozen in confusion, my head is processing so much right now I can only breathe.

"F-Finn?" Her eyes are huge, her arms instantly wrap around her stomach and she sprints back into the bathroom.

She's not pregnant. She's just as skinny and fit as she was when we met.

"I can explain," She sputters when she re-enters the room wearing a bathrobe.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" the words explode out of my mouth and she jumps.

"I'm so sorry Finn, I thought you were cheating on me, I mean you were cheating on me, you kissed that freakshow Rachel," she pauses.

"wait you knew about that?" I ask her. How'd she find out? I mean it doesn't really matter, I broke up with her anyways but still.

"I paid that Jacob Ben Israel kid to watch you for me,"

I sigh, of course.

She continues, "but then I found out I was pregnant, I mean, I thought I was and it was so perfect, so I came here to start our family and you stayed with me and everything was working out but then the doctor told me it was a false positive,"

I let out this strangled breath, I can't decide how to feel about this. On one hand, she lied to me. I was finally accepting that I was gonna be a dad, I was even a little excited about it. But on the other hand I can't help but feel relieved. "Why didn't you just tell me,"

"Finn, you already had one foot out the door, you were ready to dump me, the pregnancy was the only thing keeping you with me," she explains.

"But what about after we broke up?"

"I was planning on getting you back, it was all going to work," She says, frustrated.

"What were you going to do when it was time to have the thing!" I almost shout at her.

She shakes her head, "I don't know, adopt I guess?"

"God Lucy," I begin an angry rant, but then Rachel's face appears in my mind, "thank you,"

"w-what?"

"I think you should go back to Ohio, there's nothing here for you now," I say absently, my mind is already at Rachel's dorm, holding her, and finally being able to dedicate myself fully to her.

"but Finn," she starts but I shake my head, and walk out of the room. Leaving her cries for me to come back and driving away.

**that may sound like an ending, but I don't plan on being done. I'm hoping to get something up by either the end of this week or the middle of next week. If you want this to be the ending, I've got another story brewing in my head and I'll start that. But I won't start something else until this is done. I'd love to keep this going, like to graduation and beyond but I dunno if that's possible. Maybe I'll make a sequel that will take place in the future and will focus on less characters. Let me know what you think! Thanks for your love! **

**sincerely, your restless author :)**


	12. Tis the Season

**So I've decided to continue, I'm going to put out quite a few more chapters and then the sequel will jump a few years ahead. These chapters are going to be more spread out timeline wise. Like, this one has skipped the rest of November and it's now christmas time. Part of this is a little risque, but nothing graphic so we're good there. enjoy!**

**_-Finn- _**

Tomorrow is Christmas. My favorite holiday and I'm just as excited as I was when I was a kid. This year is going to be extra special because I get to share it with Rachel, even though she doesn't celebrate Christmas. She agreed to go home to Lima with me to celebrate it with my family.

Suddenly a stream of light hits my face as our dorm room door creaks open. "Good morning baby," my eyes pop open and Rachel skips into the room cheerily.

"ugghghhhh!" Puck groans from his bed.

"good morning to you too Noah," Rachel says still smiling.

I try to sit up but I simply yawn and flop back onto the bed face first. "babe it's too early," I whine, peaking at her from my pillow.

"I completely agree!" Puck shouts.

"oh hush," Rachel glares at him and then turns back to me, "come on Finn," she grabs onto my blanket and yanks it off.

I shiver at the feeling of the cold air on my scantily clad body, goosebumps trail up my legs and under my boxer shorts. "Rach, whyy!" I cry out.

Her face falls into a frown, "Finn, if I'm going to spend christmas with your family I have a lot to do to prepare! I need to purchase some more presents and I need to find something suitable to wear and OH FINN what if she doesn't LIKE me?"

"That's it!" Puck exclaims and leaps off his bed, dragging his sheet with him he stumbles into the bathroom and pounds on Sam and Mike's door until they let him in.

I sit up and take Rachel's hand. I bring it up to my lips and softly press a kiss to her palm, "Rach don't be silly, they're going to love you,"

Her smile returns and she pulls her hand away, taking mine with it and pulling me to my feet. She then rushes over to my dresser and tosses a sweater and a pair of jeans at me. "Get dressed! We need to go shopping,"

"Rach I'm sure my mom will love whatever you get her, you don't need me,"

"No no Finn," she says and she carefully steps over to me and presses her palm to my chest, "we're not going shopping for your mom, I'm doing that later, we're going shopping for me, and if your good and you don't complain," she pulls my head toward her face and leans close to my ear, "I'll give you a private show," she whispers and kisses my pulse point.

My girlfriend is awesome.

_**-Rachel-**_

I prance back into my dorm, smirking from my exchange with Finn. I find San pacing the floor talking on her cell phone in exaperated spanish.

"papa," something spanish, "Brit," something else. She sighs and then hangs up. She lays dramatically onto her bed and looks up at me. "He's upset that I'm not going home for christmas, but I told him I'd spend the rest of break with them and he calmed down,"

"So you're spending christmas with Brit? Are you going to meet her parents?" The drama of San's coming out had died down after Garrett was expelled for assaulting her in the locker room. Her parents took it pretty well, her grandmother however still refuses to speak to her. San took that pretty hard, but she doesn't like to talk about it.

"No, Brit's parents are on a cruise, they left a couple days ago so me and Brits are just gonna get our xmas on here,"

She looks content with this, so I simply nod. "I'm going to Lima, to spend christmas with Finn's family,"

"oooh," San sits up, an interested look spreading across her face. "Are you nervous?"

"Extremely, I mean, what if she likes Lucy better than me?"

"oh please, Lucy was crazy, his mom had to have seen that, plus I hear nice things about Carole, you shouldn't be worried. You're Rachel Damn Berry, you got this!"

"You're right, you're totally right," so why do I have a feeling that everything is going to go horribly horribly wrong.

**_-Quinn-_**

I read over Puck's notes, scribbling sidenotes in the margins.

"So you going away for vacation?" He inquires. I slowly look up from the notebook and at him. He's staring at his hands, but he can clearly feel my eyes on him and looks at me.

"Uhm, no, my family is hard to be around, especially around the holidays," I answer and look back to the notes.

"hey mine too, maybe we could have our own christukkah," he shrugs and I can't help but crack a smile.

"christukkah? oh, hanukkah and christmas, clever," I point the eraser of my pencil at him and acknowledge his wit. "Maybe we can, you've been doing a lot better Puck, I'm proud of you,"

"thanks" he says, blushing and smiling proudly. I can't help but notice how his eyes sparkle when he smiles, and how muscular his shoulders are. I absent mindedly tap the pencil against my lip.

He raises an eyebrow at me, and I clear my throat and turn my attention back to the notes. "Well, your notes are pretty thorough, I see no reason why you shouldn't get at least a B on this test," I close the notebook and hand it back to him. Then I gather up my things and we stand up from the table at the same time.

We hold each other gaze for a second, then a minute and it suddenly it feels like hours.

My books and pencils fall to the floor and are followed by his notebook. I can't help it, I throw myself into his arms, his strong, warm arms and I'm overwhelmed by amazing he smells. His lips find mine in an instant and I'm pleasantly surprised by how passionate they are. My skin is on fire under his touch. I never want to stop.

_**-Finn-**_

"Hey Sam, you seen Puck? I haven't since he crashed in your room this morning," I ask Sam as I pack my toothbrush into my bag.

"nope, not since he left for his tutoring session with Q a couple hours ago," Sam shruggs and grabs a towel from under the sink, "Now beat it, I gotta shower, I got a christmas eve date with cedes before I head home tonight,"

I take my bag and leave the bathroom letting the door shut behind me and immediate it falls from my grip.

The lights in my room are dimmed and there's Rachel, sitting on the edge my bed, wearing a red corset, matching panties, white fisnet stockings, red heels and a santa hat. Oh damn. Mailman, Mailman, Mailman.

"R-rach?"

"Hello Finn, Happy Hanukkah," She crosses her legs and leans back on her elbows, "come unwrap your first present,"

I waste no time rushing over there to sweep her up into my arms and do just that.

"You are so beautiful," I whisper to her, and she sighs.

"touch me Finn," she half moans in my ear and I just about explode right then and there.

Best Christmas Ever

_**-Rachel-**_

I slept most of the plane ride to Lima, our previous activities wore me out for the night. We landed kind of late so no one in his house was even awake when we made our way to Finn's old room.

He pushes open the door and flicks on the light. The first thing I see is the cowboy wallpaper, second is the sleeping bag made up on the floor next to the twin bed.

"Really mom, I should have expected this," Finn sighs and sets his bag down on the floor, then he takes mine and sets it on top of the old looking dresser. "The bed is too small for both of us anyway, heck I barely fit into it myself,"

I giggle, half at the thought of Finn's large form trying to squeeze onto the bed and half out of exhaustion. I wander over to the bed and immediately get under the striped comforter. Even after all of these years, the bed still smells like Finn.

The last thing I remember is Finn kissing my forehead and turning out the light.

"Get up! Rach it's christmas!" Finn's voice chimes excitedly, like a little boy. I sit up immediately, and my shoulder knocks him in the face. He falls back onto the sleeping bag and groans.

"oh my god Finn! I'm SO sorry!" I jump out of bed and straddle his waist, "Let me see, Finn," I carefully pull his hand off of his eye and I can clearly see a small bruise lining the top of his cheek bone. "Awwww baby," I kiss it gently a few times and then his cheek.

"It's okay, I'm okay, my miniature girlfriend only gave me a black eye!" He says teasingly. He winces when I kiss it again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I repeat and kiss him all over his cute face.

"I suppose I can forgive you, for a few more kisses," He smirks and cups my face in his hands before pulling my lips to his again.

"Finn, Rachel, come down for breakfast!" Kurt's voice rings up the stairs and breaks us out of our bliss.

Finn sighs and lifts me into his arms as he stands, then carefully sets me on my feet.

"Here we go, you ready?" He grabs my hand and holds open the door.

"I'm ready," I smooth my hair with my free hand and we make our way down to approach one of the most important milestones in our relationship.

**_-Kurt-_**

I miss Blaine, I can't believe his parents pulled the "we never see you" card on him the day before he was supposed to come home with me for christmas! Now who am I supposed to ignore all of the Finchel cuteness with?

"Oh Rachel it's lovely!" Carole holds up a gorgeous red knitted scarf and hugs the small girl.

We've already opened most of the presents, Finn loved the weird videogame my dad bought him and Rachel promised to make sure he wore the new dress shirts I got him. Those stupid vests have been getting on my nerves since high school.

Carole almost cried over the necklace that Finn and I both chipped in for. and she _did _cry over the photo album that my dad put together. He can be so sentimental sometimes.

The last gift was Finn's gift to Rachel. He sheepishly handed her an envelope.

**_-Rachel-_**

I pulled out the folded up piece of white paper tucked inside the envelope from Finn. My heart beat twice as fast as normal and I looked up at him with tears threatening to spill over my cheeks. "You bought me a star?"

"Aww Finn!" Carole cried and squeezed Finn's hand.

"Yeah, I named it Finn Hudson, because there's already a star named Rachel Berry and she's right here on Earth and she's brighter than any other star out there. This way when you're out there chasing your dreams you can look into the sky and I'll be right there with you, always," His cheeks are bright red.

I can feel the tears falling down my face now. "oh Finn," I grab onto the collar of his sweater and pull his lips to mine for one soft sweet kiss. "Finn, I love you,"

**_-Finn-_**

She loves me? She loves me, thank god. I let out a sigh of relief, "I love you too Rach," There's no way I couldn't love her. and there's no way I ever want to stop.

**there, :) I could very possibly get the next chapter up tomorrow. It's quite likely. Reviews are magic!**

**Read, Review, & Repeat! love you all!**

**sincerely, your thrilled author.**


	13. Misunderstood

**This chapter is mainly Quick with a side of Finchel. I just felt like I haven't developed their relationship enough and I wanted the readers to see the loving side of Puck that is so discretely nestled underneath his self-proclaimed "badass" exterior. enjoy!**

_**-Rachel—**_

I'm lying out on the quad, staring up at the stars. Wondering if I can see Finn's star from here. Tears still fresh on my cheeks. How could he think I had cheated on him? With Noah! I would never do that to him, and I would never do that to Quinn.

My cell phone buzzes and I see that it's from Santana.

Get back to our room, ur man is here – San

Finn's in my room? I stand up and brush off the grass from my tights and take off in the direction of my dorm.

I get through my door and there's Finn. Sitting on my bed, his head in his hands. "Finn?"

He looks up, he looks tired, like he hasn't slept in days. I guess I wouldn't know, we haven't spoken in a few days either.

"Rach?" his voice cracks. Oh no.

I hurry over to where he's sitting and kneel down, "What is it?"

"I love you, you know that right? I was just so upset when I found you and Puck I"

"Finn, nothing happened I swear,"

"I know, I know, but I thought it did, and I was so afraid and I ran into Quinn, and she basically told me that something did happen and we were talking and we might have kissed."

"you, you kissed Quinn?" I search his face, his eyes are bloodshot and his hands are shaking.

"We both realized it was a mistake as soon as it happened, she's telling Puck right now,"

Just as he says that the door busts open and I can hear Quinn's voice in the hall "Puck stop! It wasn't his fault!"

"You bastard!" Noah yells and is about to lunge at Finn before I step in between them.

"Berry, move, why are you defending him?" He looks at me, his eyes begging me to step aside and I see in them how hurt he is.

"Noah, this isn't the way to handle this, it was a misunderstanding, if you think about it, what we did could have been mistaken for an affair. We were sneaking around, hiding things and when Finn found us in here together it would have sealed the deal, you have to see both sides!"

"But that doesn't give Finn the right to kiss my girl!" Noah says through gritted teeth.

"Puck it wasn't Finn's fault, I kissed him," Quinn explains.

I turn to Finn, "Is that true?" Finn sheepishly nods and I let out the breath I'd been holding in. I hurry to Finn's side and wrap my small arms around his waist, "Thank you for telling the truth,"

"I'm so sorry Rach, I should never have thought you would cheat on me. But, what were you two doing?"

Noah sighs, "Rachel was helping me with my homework,"

"What? But I'M your tutor!" Quinn shouts.

"But you're also my girlfriend, and I wasn't doing any better because you distract the hell out of me and I didn't want you to think I was a failure so Berry was giving me some extra help after hours,"

I hear Finn laugh out loud, "Thank god, see just a misunderstanding!" He squeezes me tighter to him and smiles, relieved.

"Yeah, maybe everything's peachy for you," Noah spits, and then turns to Quinn, "But you still cheated on me, I knew you were a lot of things Quinn, but I never thought you were that mean and insecure,"

Tears begin to spill over Quinn's cheeks, "Puck, please,"

Noah just shakes his head and walks out of the room.

Quinn's tears elevate to sobs and she clutches her arms to her chest.

"Finn, I think you should go, it looks like I'm going to have a long night," I pat his arm but he gives me an incredulous look.

"Are you crazy? I'd rather deal with this than go to my room and deal with Puck!"

I see his point and walk over to Quinn, taking her into my arms and trying to calm her down.

**_-Puck-_**

"Sucks man I'm sorry," Sam says after I explain why I trashed a good 60% of our room. "Hey, wanna hit that bar that just opened up a couple blocks from Kurt's apartment?"

"Just got cheated on, trashed my room, got drunk. Yup it adds up, let's go," I grab my coat and my car keys and we head out to the parking lot.

A half an hour later, we're sitting at the bar, wasted, and serenading the bartender who is about an 8 when I'm drunk, but she was only a 5 when we first walked in.

"You know, what we should do?" Sam slurs, before holding out his glass for another shot. The bartender, who's name escapes me so I just call her Quinn, because that's the only girl's name I can think of.

"What," I say before tossing one back.

"we should open up a bar, I mean I'm taking business classes and you know your booze, Cedes knows music, hey she could work with us too, it would be awesome," His mouth gets really sloppy when he's drunk and I only caught the first sentence, but frankly that was enough for me.

"That's a great idea, let's take another shot and then write that down, hey QUINN!" I smack my hand down on the counter and the bartender makes her way over to us, smirking.

"oh no, you two are done," She takes our glasses away.

"You're mean just like the real Quinn," She chuckles a little at me and then carries the glasses away.

I grab a pen from behind the counter and start scribbling illegible plans out on a napkin. "This isn't working, we'll just have to try to remember it tomorrow,"

"I have a great booze memory!" Sam says, quite loudly and taps his head.

"Maybe we can tell someone about it and they'll remember, oh I know, we can tell Quinn!" I pull my phone out while Sam nods his head in agreement and then looks like he's about to puke. He heads off in the direction of the bathroom while the phone rings.

"Puck?" I hear her sniffle.

"Q! I need to tell you something and you can never forget it okay?"

"uh, okay, Puck are you drunk?"

"Yes, I am completely wasted," I say calmly, and I clear my throat to tell her our plan, "I love you Quinn, so much and that's why I'm so upset about you kissing Finn. But I think that if you give me some time I can forgive you, okay? Did you get all that?"

"yeah, but Puck, that's something you should tell me when you're sober,"

"But it's fitting that my dream of opening a bar with Sam would come to me when I'm hammered,"

"What? Puck you just told me you loved me,"

If you can be shocked sober, I think I just was. "What?"

"You said that you loved me and could eventually forgive me,"

"I'm drunk Quinn you can't hold me to that," I know I shouldn't have said that, because in that moment I knew what I'd said was true. But I'm not ready for her to know it yet.

"Well," I can hear the tears fighting through her voice, "Just know that I love you too and I'm not afraid to admit that, I'm not giving up on you, okay? Did you get all of _that?"_ and with that she hung up on me

"SAM!" I shout and the bartender puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Alright hawk, I called a cab for you and your friend,"

"Thank you, I'm sorry for what I said, you're not mean like the real Quinn, but she loves me so I guess it's okay,"

"okay, have a nice night,"

"SAM!" I shout again before I suddenly pass out.

_**-Finn-**_

Puck is never allowed to call me Finnessa again. I've spent ALL weekend listening to him complain, Quinn this and Quinn that.

"Would you just grow a pair and forgive her? Stop being so damn proud!" I shout at him after he bitches about how her damn golden hair catches the sunlight, seriously Puck what the hell is that? I'M not even that sappy and that's me we're talking about!

"Shut up Finn you don't understand what I'm feeling!"

"What, Love? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do understand that, and you have a hell of a way of showing her you love her. The first time you actually admitted it you were drunk and you denied it right after!"

"How'd you know about that?" He asks me, immediately ashamed.

"Quinn told Rach, but I have the boyfriend advantage and we have an honesty policy so she told me,"

Puck just rolls his eyes and stalks into the bathroom, "SAM!" He calls out.

"HE'S OUT WITH MERCEDES!" I hear Mike reply.

"DAMMIT!" Puck slams the door and I can't help but smirk. He's more lovesick than I could imagine.

**_-Puck-_**

I'm going to forgive her.

No, no I'm not.

She kissed Finn! Why would she even do that? I'm the Puckasaurus! I'm badass! Why am I so screwed up over this!

"puck?" it's her, I can smell her perfume. Her voice is careful, like she's anticipating violence.

I slowly turn around to face her. I find it hard to keep myself together when I look her in the eye.

"Puck I'm so sorry, the kiss was a mistake, I knew it as soon as it happened. I didn't even plan to do it, I was just afraid that you were cheating on me."

I just look at her, and she continues.

"I'd heard about you, big hotshot on campus, you're so experienced and I'd even talked to some of the girls you've been with. I also had heard about you and Rachel. I felt like you were getting bored with me and it scared me because I realized that I'd fallen in love with you," she looks down at her feet for a second and when she looks back up at me a single tear is sliding down her face. That single tear almost brought me to my knees.

I take a deep breath, "I meant what I said, on the phone. About loving you. From the second I met you I changed, it was like when I looked at you, something clicked. Suddenly all of those stupid lovesongs and those movies that you grow a vagina if you watch all the way through, they made sense. I'd be lying if I said you didn't hurt me. But I guess I understand why you did it. Just please don't do it again, it made me feel like a bitch, and I'm totally not down with that," I smile a little and she wipes at her eyes.

Taking a step toward her I grab onto her wrist and pull her to my chest. "You're real Quinn, you make me feel like a real man,"

I can feel her smile against my shirt. "Thank you," she whispers.

I can feel it again, the clicking inside my chest. This is where she belongs, right here in my arms. Not that I'll ever admit that to anyone except her.

"Don't tell Rachel any of the sappy boyfriend stuff I do okay? I don't want to sound like Finn and I do NOT want to ever hear him tell me to grow a pair ever again,"

Quinn laughs softly, "okay I promise,"

**there! drama resolved! I'm going to do another chapter that will be half finchel half britana, and then I'm going to do a valentine's day chapter! It will be super fluffly and super cute. I'm pretty excited. **

**Read, Review & Repeat! you guys are too good to me ;) **

**sincerely, your pumped up author :D**


	14. What it feels like

**_-Santana-_**

"Talk to me, San, you haven't told anyone what happened, it's been weeks," Brit grabs my hand as we walk to practice.

"I just don't want to talk about it, it's over," I stiffen under Brit's concerned gaze. I sigh, because I can see the hurt in her eyes, she just wants to understand. "He just said some awful things to me, and pushed me up against the lockers, it didn't go further than that. The fear was the worst part," We stop in the middle of the path, "I was so scared of what was going to happen, there was three of them, if Sue and Coach Bieste hadn't heard me screaming, it would have been so much worse,"

"I'm so sorry San, I don't want you to be afraid," She stroked my palm with her thumb soothingly.

A couple freshmen scurry by us, avoiding eye contact. Ever since Dean Figgins cracked the hammer down on harrassment people have been avoiding me even more, like theyre afraid of accidentally offending me and getting themselves expelled like Garret and his neaderthal friends.

"thanks Brits," I ignore the other people on the path and tighten my grip on Brit's hand. As long as I focus on how warm it is, on how confident Brit looks as she walks beside me, her head up high like no one can touch her. Maybe, I'll be okay too.

_**-Sam-**_

"Sam, you need to calm down," Mercedes places a hand on my shoulder.

"I just, I feel like I should have done, something," I take deep breaths, trying to stop the trembling in my hands. Ever since San was attacked a few weeks back I've been feeling like I'm not doing my job. I feel like my girls could drop at any minute and I'm not there to catch them.

"Sam, you couldn't have done anything, none of us knew until it was over. She's okay, she knows you would've done something if you could have," She rubs my back comfortingly. I smile half-heartedly at her. She's trying so hard to be understanding.

"Santana can handle herself, you know," She removes her hand shifts uncomfortably next to me on the couch in the library.

"It was three on one Mercedes, if coach hadn't gone in there who knows what could have happened!" I shake my head furiously at the possibilities.

Mercedes sighs, "You can't protect them forever Sam, it's not your job,"

"Sure San's tough, but what about Rach? She's so, she's Rachel, she can't handle herself, and Quinn, god Mercedes, It's been my job to look out for them for so long, it's not an easy habit to break,"

"Rachel has Finn, and Quinn has Puck, they don't need you Sam, _I_ need you now, it's your job to protect _me_," Suddenly it clicks, this isn't about the girls, it's about her. She does understand, she's just jealous.

"Babe, you know I'll protect you, it's an instinct. But I'm like HP, I gotta protect everyone I care about, everyone,"

"But they don't need you,"

I throw my head back, "What if Puck screws up huh? Or Finn? Or what if some assholes try to gang up on San again? Am I supposed to just ignore them? No, when they hurt, I hurt. You're my girlfriend, and I'll always be here for you, I'm a chicks before dicks kind of guy, but they were my chicks first, they're like my sisters, please respect that," with that I stand, grab my bag and lean down to kiss her on the cheek. She looks down at her hands but doesn't push me away. "I'll call you later okay?"

She nods, I've never seen her so quiet. It almost makes me stay, but this conversation reminds me that there's someone I need to have words with.

**_-Quinn-_**

I don't think my relationship with Puck has been this, stable, until now. He hasn't made a crude comment since he showed up at my dorm this morning. Actually he hasn't said anything for the last half hour, we're just laying on my bed, he's holding me and every once in a while he'll kiss my temple. I've never seen him like this.

"You're so much more gentle than I expected," I whisper, facing the wall with him cuddled up behind me.

"Yeah, just don't tell anyone," I crack a smile at that, always trying to protect his reputation as king of the badasses.

Suddenly I hear his phone vibrate in his pocket and he stealthily pulls it out, "hello? Rach? What, calm down, yeah she's right here," He thrusts his phone at me, a panicked expression on his face and I take, sitting up.

"Rach? What's wrong?"

I can hear her take in a shaky breath before speaking, "M-my Dad just c-called me and m-my D-dad-dy is in the h-hospital," she sobs at the last part and I let out a steady breath. Rachel is so close to her fathers.

"Is he okay? What happened?"

"H-he was in a c-car accident, dr-runk dr-river, I, I don't know if he's okay, Q-quinn? What if h-he's not okay?"

Oh god, "Where's Finn?"

"I called him, -hiccup- his phone is -hiccup- off, he's in class," her sobs are dying down, but her voice is still quivering.

"Okay, do you want Puck and I to drive you to the hospital? Is he in town?"

"Y-yeah, Quinn he needs to be okay,"

"He will be, I'm sure of it," She hangs up and I hand Puck his phone. "Come on, we need to get Finn out of class,"

**_-Rachel-_**

Finn comes through my door followed by Quinn and Noah. I sit up from the fetal position on my bed and Finn sweeps me up bridal style and peppers my face with kisses. "Rach I am so sorry I turned my phone off,"

I immediately burst into tears again, "It's okay, you're here now," I say between gasps for air.

He carries me out of the building and buckles me into his truck, Q and Noah climb into the back and I can hear her on the phone with San.

"Just meet us at the hospital, Rach is a mess,"

"FINN BETTER BE MANNING UP AND TAKING CARE OF HER FREAKED OUT ASS OR I'LL WILL CUT HIM!"

I let a chuckle cut through my tears for a moment. San is like my ghetto mom. Quinn's my suburban mom and Sam's my big brother. I've got the best family away from my family ever. Speak of the brotherly devil, Sam sprints up the passenger side of the truck just as Finn starts it and slaps his hand on the window. Finn rolls it down and Sam thrusts his arms into the truck to wrap them around my shoulders.

"Everythings gonna be fine Rach, we're all here for you, I love you and I'm following you in big red okay?"

"okay Sam, I love you too," I say, even though he's practically constricting my airways. He nods and Finn rolls up the window and backs out of the parking lot.

The tears start back up once we're on the road and Finn grabs onto my hand, "shh, babe, it's gonna be okay,"

"Finn! This is the first time you're meeting my dads! This is NOT okay!"

He shakes his head, "It doesn't matter, all that matters is that you're there supporting him and I'm there supporting you, okay?"

I nod, sniffling and we pull into the hospital.

We walk into the front entrance and Quinn talks to the receptionist.

"Rachel Baby?" I hear my Dad's voice and I spin around, and find myself pressed against his chest in a gripping hug.

"Dad, I'm here, do we know anything?"

"The doctor just talked to me, it's bad sweetie, he's in surgery,"

_it's bad, surgery _his words float around repeating themselves in my head. Suddenly I'm feeling light headed, I stumble a little when I dad lets me go.

"Rach?" Finn's voice is clear.

"Rachel!" Quinn's holding my shoulders and trying to get me to focus on her. I can see her pretty face, and it's quickly replaced by Finn's. He's so beautiful, I focus on his eyes, his lips, his cheeks.

"Rach? Look at me," He says, "look at me," he repeats this, but his face is getting fuzzy, and then everything fades to black. The last thing I remember is thinking about his face and praying to God I'm not dying, because I can't imagine not waking up to that face for the rest of my life.

**oh snap! This chapter twisted drastically from what I'd originally planned, but as I've mentioned before, I write what the characters want. This is THEIR story. So, what's going to happen with Rachel's daddy, and what's going to happen to Rachel! Will Mercedes come to terms with Sam's relationship with the girls? Will the torment of Santana ever end? We shall see, :)**

**read, review & repeat! ;)**

**sincerely your exhilerated author,**


	15. Waiting pt 1

**so this is really short. I just decided to give everyone a little bonus shot. Some aww-worthy finn and some gasp-worthy foreshadowing. Let's see how riled up you can all get ;) *sorry to repost this, but one of you asked about her dad and i MEANT to mention his disappearance, but I got caught up in Finn's flustered ramblings and I forgot to put it in there. But it's there now :) Thank you for bringing it to my attention GleekyGleek.***

_**-Finn-**_

"She's, she's not moving, HEY!" I shout blindly in the middle of the lobby. A doctor calmly walks over to me and looks down at Rachel in my arms.

"She, she fainted or something," I sputter, searching her expressionless face for some kind of explanation.

"Are her parents here? How old is she?"

"Uh, she's 20, her parents are both here, one got into an accident, I think he's in surgery, the other is doing paperwork, or, or something, I'm, I'm her boyfriend,"

He motions for some porters to bring over a gurney and they lift her up onto it. "Tell me your name,"

"Finn," I say.

"Okay Finn, is there any chance that your girlfriend could be pregnant?"

"uh, I, I don't, I," I say, flustered. I don't know? We're, we're careful, especially considering the almost Lucy fiasco. God, _could_ she be pregnant? I guess, I mean she could. But she never, said anything.

"Well have you two had sex son?" He says, completely, what's that word? Chandelier? Cavalier? He's calm, so fucking calm. How is he so calm?

"Well yes, I mean, yes, so I guess, she could be, but I don't see how this is relative,"

"Relevant," Quinn whispers, correcting me. I look at her, her hand is on her throat and her face is so pale. She's scared too, even Puck looks freaked out.

"Listen Doc, my father is a surgeon, and big fancy one, and his best friend is a lawyer. So unless you want a bad rep and lawsuit I suggest you get my girl here looked at so she can see her damn father. Or are you slacking on fixing him up too?" Santana steps in front of me and stabs her finger into the guy's nametag.

He nods, calm as ever and wheels Rachel down a long white hallway.

"God, god, what is happening?" I hear Kurt's panicked voice as he bursts through the front doors and speed walks over to us.

"Rachel's dad got into an accident, she collapsed when we got here,"

I'm still staring down the hallway. Rachel already went around the corner. But I'm just waiting for her to walk back down to us and tell me this is all a joke. Everything is fine, we woke up this morning and nothing bad happened. Except so far, everything has gone wrong.

Pregnant. Accident. My palms are sweaty, I can hear my heart beating louder than anything else.

I get pulled back to reality when Puck puts a hand on my shoulder. "You should sit down dude, we don't need you to pass out too,"

I nod and we all sit in the waiting room. Waiting, huh, is there nothing else to do here? Just sit here. Or cry like Quinn and Brit are. Or ramble like Santana and Sam do when they're worried. Or stare off, completely cut off from the world, because honestly, Rachel is my world. And she just went down that long white hallway and around the corner.


	16. Waiting pt 2

**Well hello there dearest readers! Here is the rest of the waiting chapter :) There is some adorable Finchel in this. Just so ya know ;) enjoy!**

_**-Quinn-**_

Waiting, my head in my hands, trying to take deep even breaths. Puck is leaning against me, rubbing soft slow circles on my back.

Waiting, it's all we can do. I glance around the room, Finn is still staring down that damn hallway. Brit is sniffling, half asleep, curled up next to San, who is just holding her, quieter than I've ever seen her, on the floor.

Sam is updating Mercedes from his cell phone, He keeps an eye on everyone, bringing us water and snacks from the machine, constantly checking with the receptionist and with any doctor who walks by. He's keeping himself busy.

Kurt is squeezing Finn's hand, his eyes closed. I'd think he was praying, but Kurt doesn't believe. I'll bet he's just hoping.

Rachel's dad came back and he's sleeping in the chair nearest to the hallway. He wakes up every few minutes and looks at us, everytime we shake our heads slowly, no news, and he drifts back off to sleep.

Puck leans close to my ear and whispers, "you can sleep if you need to,"

I shake my head. I couldn't possibly sleep right now, and even if I tried, I'd only have nightmares.

He keeps trying to assure me that Rachel just fainted, she'll be fine.

But if she just fainted, shouldn't she be back by now? No, something else is wrong with her.

_**-Rachel-**_

"She should be fine in a couple of months, she'll need to take these iron supplements and I suggest a change in her diet, she was mildly anemic due to an iron deficiency caused by the pregnancy,"

My eyes pop open, "EXCUSE ME!" my demanding tone came out as a squeal, and suddenly I feel a wave of exhaustion wash over me.

"Ah, Ms. Berry, you're awake, I was just telling your father that you were mildly anemic but we caught it when we ran a few tests after you passed out in the lobby. But have no fear, the iron your body needs should be back to normal in a couple months,"

"Iron? I, I have a strict, and very nutritious diet!"

"Yes, but your body needs more of it now to care for the fetus,"

"Fetus? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Rachel, sweetheart, you're pregnant," My father, Leroy, looks at me behind his glasses and brushes my hair out of my face.

"But, oh god," I cover my face with my hands.

"There are options," The doctor begins.

I laugh out loud, "Options," I repeat. "There are no options, I'm going to be a mom, a MOM! I don't even HAVE a mom! How can I be a mom? Dad? What am I going to do? Dad, Daddy? Where's Daddy? Is he okay, how is he doing?"

"shh, shh, Rachel baby, he's still not awake, he's out of surgery and he appears to be stable, but, dear, you need to calm down,"

"Where's Finn?" I ask, crossing my arms and staring at the blanket covering me.

"Finn, you're boyfriend?" I nod, "He's in the waiting room,"

I stare at him for a second, "Well, go GET him!"

**_-Santana-_**

"Who of you are here for Rachel Berry?" My head pops up and I pull Brit to her feet.

"All of us," Quinn gestures to the group.

"Well, she's asking for, Finn? So he and, three others can go in first," The doctor motions for four of us to follow him and Finn pratically sprints down the hall ahead of him.

We all look at one another, "Well, Santana can go obviously, she is Rachel's roommate," Kurt says, yawning.

"I want Brits with me, and Quinn, ladies first,"

Sam pouts and slumps in his chair next to Puck, who groans in frustration.

"Let's go, I gotta kick Berry's ass for scaring the shit out of us," I say, headed in the direction that Finn took off in.

Before we reach the room I can hear her.

"Just let me see my Daddy! God, I'm FINE! Let me OUT of this BED!"

"this must be her," Quinn rolls her eyes and we walk into the room.

"GUYS! thank god, tell them I can leave!" Rachel exclaims, frantically pointing at a nurse.

"Drama QUEEN!" Quinn jokes and sits at the foot of her hospital bed.

Finn is kneeling next to her face, holding her hand and smiling like a fool.

Rachel smiles back at him.

"I just gotta say one thing," I say calmly and she looks at me, ready for me to continue.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING! COLLAPSING LIKE THAT? SCARING THE SHIT OUT OF US! DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE ALL WERE!"

Another nurse pokes her head in the door, "ma'am can you quiet down please?"

"EXCUSE ME? NO ME GUSTA! Let me bitch my bitch out in peace, eyh?"

The nurse's eyes widen and she slowly retreats. That's what I thought.

"San, I'm sorry, I was just shocked and apparently iron-deficient, and, um, dammit, can I talk to Finn, um alone? for just a second?"

_**-Finn-**_

"wait what?" I narrow my eyes at her. Did she just pregnant? "Pregnant, with relief?" Long shot Finn.

"No Finn, Pregnant with a baby, your baby,"

"My baby, are you for real? Or are you fucking with me?"

"I'm pretty sure _that_ is how we got into this Finn," I smirk at her. Clever Rach, very clever.

"Seriously though, I _am_ pregnant, the doctor just told me, I was mildly anemic because my body didn't have enough iron for me and the, the baby,"

"Iron? What does your body need iron for?"

"Finn it's a vitamin," she pats my hand softly and sits up, leaning against a pillow.

"So we're having a kid, how, how far are you?"

"Not far, a couple months, looks like you knocked me up on the first try," she says, laughing a little bit to herself.

"Really? Huh, that's ironic, I actually knock you up, while I thought I'd knocked Lucy up, I'm confusing myself,"

Lucy, not pregnant. Rachel, doctor confirmed. Maybe I should talk to the doc, just to be safe.

As if on que, the doctor walks into Rachel's room, wheeling some heavy looking equipment over to the side of the bed. "Ready for your ultrasoud?"

"U-ultrasound? Really? Now," Rachel looks at me, shocked, but her eyes have sparks in them. She loves this kid already, and I smile back at her, I think I do too.

"Yes ma'am, I'd say you were about 7, maybe 7 1/2 weeks along, perfect time to get a first look," He's got all of the machines hooked up and he puts this gross looking gel on Rachel's tanned stomach. She winces at how cold it is and takes my hand firmly in hers.

The doctor moves some weird baby detector over her tummy and out of nowhere, I can hear this muffled fluttering sound.

"There's the heartbeat,"

A rush of air explodes from my lungs in a stunned gasp. A heartbeat. I look at the screen and I can faintly hear the doctor pointing out our baby, who looks kind of like a sea monkey right now. I can barely hear him over the sound of my baby's heartbeat. He or she, has a heartbeat. I just can't get over that, my baby is real. I look at Rachel and she raises her hand to brush her thumb under my eye, she wipes away tears I didn't even know were there.

This is completely different from looking at that stupid fake picture that Lucy had shown me. I feel, tethered to that heartbeat. I look from the screen to Rachel, who is at a loss for words. Something that only happens when she's truly amazed. I cup her face in my hands and kiss her deeply. I can feel her crying into the kiss, grabbing onto my tshirt and refusing to let go of me.

"You are my whole world Rachel Berry," I whisper to her as the doctor says something about printing off pictures and wipes away the gross gel.

_**-Rachel-**_

An eruption of "PREGNANT?" follows my announcement when the doctors FINALLY let me leave that awful room.

"Yes, with child, legit, no fake Lucy drama," I explain. They all look at each other, unsure of how to respond.

Brit squeals with delight and jumps up and down chanting "baby!"

Sam's face pales as he looks at Finn, clenching and unclenching his fist. Oh lordy, I'll address that later.

Puck smirks at us, and air fist bumps Finn, much to Quinn's disgust. She is the first to speak up.

"Awwww! Yay! I love babies!" Brit high fives her and Santana yanks Brit back.

"What did I say about mini lerches!"

I blush furiously and Finn wraps his arm around me.

"This was unexpected, and it's going to be tough, but, listen. We just had this ultranoise thing and I heard my baby's heartbeat. Heartbeat! It was the most amazing thing ever and yeah, I was a little shocked and first and I'm still terrified but mostly, all I feel is love. I'm so, in love with this kid already and I just hope that you can all be supportive of us," He says and I stare adoringly at him.

I grab onto his face and pull him down to kiss his cheek, "I am so turned on by you right now," I whisper huskily in his ear.

Damn, baby hormones. That explains the terribly Santana-esque dreams I've been having.

His turn to blush as he raises an eyebrow at me and mumbles something about later.

"Now that we've told you and everyone's excited, yay! You are welcome to go home and get some sleep, Finn, my Dad and I are going to stay here until my Daddy wakes up. Thank you all so much for being here for me,"

They nod and I can tell they're too tired to even pretend to be sorry for leaving. One by one (or actually two by two mostly) They hug us and leave.

Now all I can do is wait.

**_-Finn-_**

the waiting never fucking ends!

**I originally didn't plan on impregnating Rachel. But it was just so cute and finchel-ly I HAD to. I hope you all will still love this, and this will actually open up a lot more for the future. Plus I love planning things like this. Girl or Boy? What should the baby's name be? Who should it look like more? Leave your suggestions, they will be much appreciated :) The next chapter will reveal the fate of Rachel's injured dad. Also, coming up will be the valentines day chapter which I'm thinking I might set during Rachel's baby shower. Thoughts?**

**Read, Review & Repeat :)**

**Sincerely your very corny author.**


	17. Blissed Out Baby Bubble

**big news in this chapter! woot woot, get pumped it's quite a doozy. I love your reviews! :)**

_**-Finn-**_

"Rach? You haven't said a word since we left the hospital, your dad's gonna be okay. You heard the doctor say that right?" Her face froze solid when she heard the doctor say wheelchair.

"I know Finn," she said in small voice, "I just, now I feel so terrible feeling happy about this baby," she rubbed little circles on her stomach and looked at me with tears in her eyes. "You should have seen his face when I told him, he was hurting, so much he couldn't even be excited for me, and I was so sad for him, that the news almost sounded like a tragedy,"

"It will just take time Rach, when he's feeling better, you will too, it just takes time," I comfortingly rubbed her hand, keeping my left one on the steering wheel and trying to focus on the road ahead of me. Quite an eventful night I'd say.

She nods, "I think I'm going to ask Artie to talk to my daddy,"

"Who's Artie?" I ask her, thoroughly confused.

"He's a boy I went to high school with, he got into a car accident when he was a kid and has been in a wheelchair ever since, he was always so optimistic in spite of it, it was very admirable,"

"That's a good idea Rach, I think you should wait a little while though, until he's a little more comfortable with the situation," I squeeze her hand in mine and she nods again.

"I love you, you know that right?" I hit the brakes slowly at a red light and lean over to kiss her cheek.

"of course Finn, and I love you, I'm forever yours," she bites her lip to hide her smile.

"Faithfully," I finish and sigh, I dunno if it's because I'm exhausted from the night before, or just because I'm so damn happy. Maybe both.

_**-Quinn-**_

"Now don't you dare get caught up in this baby drama okay? The Puckasaurus is NO baby daddy!"

I roll my eyes at him, "Duh Puck, if I wanted to have a baby I'd just ask one of the nice young men from my parent's church," Yeah, if I wanted to be someone maid, not their wife. The second biggest thing I hate about my parents is their marraige. My mother's motto is 'you should never have to lift a finger dear, I'm your wife,' she single handedly pushed back the women's rights movement twenty years or so.

"Good, I've expertly trained my swimmers pull back at the first sign of a possible conception," He says, completel seriously.

"Puck you can't _train _your sperm," I reply to him at he grabs his leather jacket, the one that reminds me of James Dean and succeeds in getting Puck into my pants at pretty much any moment. Right about now I'd be slipping it off of him and pulling him back to my bed, but I'm so tired and I'm in the mood to mess with him.

"I TRAINED them woman!" He assures me and slips the jacket on, giving me a knowing look. He thinks he knows what's coming.

I give him a lust-filled smirk and step off the bed and carefully saunter over to him. I lean up to his ear and whisper, "that jacket drives me crazy," and then I pull it off of his arms and drag him over to the bed. He lets his head fall onto the pillow, a lazy grin on his face, and I straddle him.

"You what will make this even more satisfying?" I ask him, seductively.

"We do it on your roommate's bed?"

I screw my face up in confusion, "no," and then I get closer to his face, bite my lip and say, "if we don't use a condom,"

He sits up so fast I almost fell off the bed. "NO! NO WAY! Did you not just hear me?"

"Oh, come _on, _Puck, I took my birth control this morning," Then I tap my chin, pretending to think, "or did I? Yeah, I think I did, I'm 60% sure I remembered, but Puck come on, I _want _you _so _bad!"

"no way Q, no glove, no love!" He hops off my bed, grabs his jacket and opens my dorm room door. He looks back at me for a second, and the look on his face tells me he's actually considering it. But then he shakes that thought away and leaves, huffy and blue-balled.

I fall onto my bed in a fit of giggles, pull my blankets over my body and promptly fall into a much needed sleep.

**_-Finn-_**

"So are you actually going to _tell _your mom about this pregnancy?" Kurt asked me, whilst tossing one of my favorite vests into a cardboard box on my bed.

"Yes Kurt, I'm going to tell her, I'm actually excited about this baby, also, why are you here? And what are you doing with my clothes?" I stick my arm out to catch one of my flannel shirts just before it hit the box. "I've had this since high school!"

"Exactly Finn, you're going to be a dad soon, your wardrobe needs to mature with you, I'm stopping by Rachel's dorm when I'm done here. I'm tired of being _embarrassed_ to be in public with you," He says, trying to stuff another puffy vest into the box and then tapes the box closed and snaps his fingers, gesturing for me to carry it over to his SUV.

I roll my eyes and grab the box, then follow him out to his car and stuff the box into the back seat. I shut the door and tap on the hood, signaling for him to leave. My brother was so, weird. Correction, my _step-_brother, he's his own special type of person. He's lucky I love him.

**_-Rachel-_**

_kurts gonna stop by ur room to go thru ur clothes, just a heads up- Finn_

Oh lord, I should have known. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Kurt's been after my style since I met him. He's always on my case about what I wear. I've gotten better, I've abandoned the animal sweaters and legwarmers. I've moved onto these adorable sundresses and I wear jeans every once in awhile. But he still harps on and on about how I need to dress my age or I'll never find a man. Well HAH! I found one, an amazing, gorgeous man who loves me and all my adorable glory!

I'll never win this war with Kurt, he is relentless. I sigh and grab a post it note, sticking it on the door and I grab a sharpie.

**kurt,**

**go for it**

**xoxo Rachel ***

Then I leave my door unlocked and escape to the safety of the library. I need to finish up a few papers anyway.

**_-Santana-_**

I can spot the trippy patterns on one of Rachel's adolescent sundresses from a mile away.

"Rach!" I call after her, she spins around and smiles at me.

"Hey San, I haven't seen you in two days! Where've you been?"

"With Brit, how's your dad?"

Her smile falls and she looks down at her ballet flats. "He's okay, but he's in a wheelchair. The crash tore right through his spine, he's lucky to have control over his upper body, but he's really taking it hard, my other dad too."

"How've _you_ been? _Mama,_" I poke her tummy, hidden under her dress.

"Good, nauseous, hungry, horny and very very pregnant," She smirks and places her hand on her stomach with her fingers outstretched.

"When's your next ultrasound?"

"They're having me go back next week to check my iron levels again, just to make sure I'll be okay with the supplements they put me on," She says shrugging.

"Text me when it's done, I wanna know how our little berry is growing in there," I tell her, "Also, make sure Finn's being good about this, if he's a dick to you I wanna know, I need time to sharpen the razor blades hidden in my hair," I laugh a little at my joke, even though it's not really a joke. I do have a razor blade hidden in my hair, right under the elastic, in case of emergencies.

She giggles a little and nods.

I grab her wrist and pull her in to hug her. "I love you Berry, I'm here for you,"

"Aw, San,"

"Shut up, this is just because you're pregnant and I don't want you crying your baby tears all over me, so I'm gonna be as sickeningly sweet as I can until you pop that thing out,"

She rolls her eyes and hugs me back. "I love you too San,"

**_-Rachel-_**

I'm practically giddy, bouncing up and down on the hospital bed. The paper underneath me in crinkling and I can see Finn raising his eyebrow at me out of the corner of my eye.

"Anxious?" He says, laughing a little.

"I love seeing the baby, it gets me all excited," I say, smiling my famous megawatt smile and taking his hand.

My gynecologist, Dr. Ramirez walks into the room and sits on a chair next to the ultrasound equipment, "Ready?"

"Completely," I say, nodding and pulling up the tshirt I threw on before we left. It's Finn's old Mckinley High Athletics tshirt, I love the look on his face when he sees me in it.

Dr. Ramirez squirts the gel onto my tummy again and I wince at the cold, again. Everything's the same,

"Woah, looks like we found a hider,"

Except that.

"What?" I ask, glancing at Finn and seeing the look of confusion on his face.

"You're having twins,"

"But, but there was only one baby last time! What happened, did, did it split in half?" Finn stammers.

"No, no, this can happen sometimes, your first ultrasound was a little early and the twin was simply hiding behind the other one, we had no reason to suspect that there was a second fetus, so we didn't look for one, congratulations,"

I simply stare at the screen, the two fetuses, listening to the two synchronized fluttering heartbeats. Two, two babies, everything doubled, twice as many diapers, cribs, clothes, food, oh god. Tears build up in my eyes and spill down my cheeks.

The doctor wipes the gel off of my stomach and turns off the equipment, "I'll give you two a second,"

"Finn, what are we going to do? Two babies, TWO!" I exclaim through the tears.

Finn just shakes his head, "no, we are not going to stress about this, Rachel, we have two healthy babies growing in there and stressing out won't be good for them, we'll figure it all out, it'll be okay, I promise,"

I sigh, how can he promise that? I look into his eyes and I can see that he's as terrified as I am, he's just masking it. Trying to be strong for me. He's not only trying to convince that it'll be okay, but he's trying to convince himself too.

**_-Finn-_**

Two babies. Two beautiful, healthy babies. Maybe two baby girls who will look just like Rachel. What's there to be worried about? Double the fun right?

We're so screwed.

_**-Santana-**_

"TWINS?" I say, half shocked and half excited. TWO BABIES! "Brit they're having twins!" I call to her from my bed, staring at the text Rachel just sent me.

"oh no!" Brit walks out of the bathroom, a look of terror on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"They were supposed to have a baby, what are twins?"

"Twins means they're having two babies Brit," I explain to her.

"How is that possible? The stork can't carry two babies at one time San," She says to me, like I'm the one who's clearly missing something.

"No, Brit, come here, time for sex education,"

"but I know how to have sex, I lost my virginity at summer camp, remember? Alien invasion,"

I sigh, this is going to be a tough conversation.

_**-Kurt-**_

"TWINS?" I scream into the phone, I can almost picture Finn cowering at the frantic sound of my voice. "FINN THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!" I scan the yellow onesies in front of me a second time, now I'm going to have to go back and double EVERYTHING. Thank god I got a head start on the baby registry. "Now, I'm going to have to COMPLETELY redesign the nursery," I say, exasperated.

"My bad, Kurt, I guess we should have consulted with you before Rachel's babymaker upped it's, what's the word Rach? professorcy, what? proficiency!"

"No need to be sarcastic Finn, I'm sorry I yelled. I'm sure you're freaking out more than I am, wait scratch that, I'm sure _Rachel _is freaking out more than I am,"

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" I hear Rachel scream from the background.

"aw, Diva," I coo. "Hey, how do you feel about a yellow nursery? You know, unisex?"

"How is yellow unisex? I've never met a boy with a yellow bedroom," Finn replies.

"Well then hop to it and find out if they're girls or boys, otherwise your sons might have a custard colored bedroom," I say before promptly hanging up.

"outstanding," I mutter to myself, admiring a baby sized fedora.

**_-Finn-_**

"I've got this all planned out, we're gonna put a down payment on an apartment, my dads have been maintaining a pretty big savings account for me since I was born. We had to take from it when I got into college but there's still quite a bit left, we can use it to pay for first and last months rent and we can use the rest to buy supplies and then when we get a chance, we'll move out of our dorms and into the apartment, I want it to be an actual home by the time I'm due,"

That sounds good to me so I just nod, "My mom opened an account for me too, when my dad died she put half of his life insurance into it, we can use that too,"

She smiles, impressed that I'm contributing.

"When I say I'll take care of you I mean it, you don't have to do any of this alone," I tell her, wrapping an arm around her and resting my other hand on her stomach. "you're showing you know," I whisper to her.

She looks down at herself, the sundresses she wears do a good job of hiding her baby bump for the most part, but if you knew she was pregnant, you can see it. "I know," she whispers back.

"Everyone will know eventually, the most important people already do know," I say smiling at her. Telling my mom went surprisingly well. She loves Rachel though, so I can see how she'd be excited. I let it slip that I'd thought Lucy was pregnant though and she was pretty pissed that I'd left her in the dark on that one.

"I know, it's just, it's none of their business, so I don't really even want to tell anyone. Not that I'm ashamed or anything, I just don't want anyone popping our blissed out baby bubble," she says, standing on her tippy toes to kiss me softly.

Blissed out baby bubble, "You're so right babe," I smile into her lips.

**yay for twins! haha, I love twins, aside from the added expenses they're double awesome :D So once Finchel figures out the money issue it should be all sunshine and rainbows right? right? we'll see. **

**read, review & repeat :P**

**sincerely your ecstatic author**


	18. Cravings & Explaining

**yay! I broke 100 reviews! You guys are awesome! Your reviews make me smile, seriously, I was giddy when i read them :) It gets me all revved up to keep writing so keep it up! enjoy this chapter! :)**

_**-Rachel-**_

I turned to the side and looked in the mirror, sure enough my yellow sundress failed to hide my subtle but ever growing baby bump. I rested my palms on my tummy and prompty burst into tears.

"Rach? Babe what's wrong?" Finn came into the bathroom and wrapped his arms around me, I leaned my head against his chest and sobbed into his polo.

"I'm, so, FAT!" I say between sobs.

"Oh, baby, no, you're barely showing and even if you were, you're pregnant and I think you look beautiful," He whispers, smoothing my hair and kissing the top of my head. He was so sweet sometimes and he's handling my pregnancy hormones pretty well. Then again he had some practice.

"Is that what you told Lucy too?" I say, my voice dripping with disdain.

"No, she didn't really act like this, she wasn't really pregnant though," He replies.

"So she was more pleasant to be around!" I cry out.

"no! She was irritable and annoying even without hormonal mood swings,"

"I'm annoying?" I throw my hands up. I know I may be overreacting, but I can't help it. These words are flying out of my mouth so fast and the more I talk, the more I start to believe what I'm saying. "She was so pretty, even with the pregnant belly, she's prettier than me and she's blonde and you're so nice and so hot and strong and I'm just fat and _annoying_..." I ramble on until he puts his hands on my waist and pulls me close to him.

"shh, stop it. You're beautiful and amazing and I love _you, _and I love our babies and you're going to be so strong through this and I love you even more for that,"

I wipe the tears off my face and look at him, "Finn?"

"Yeah baby,"

"Can you get me some vegan ice cream? I'm starving,"

He sighs and nods, leaving the bathroom quietly.

**_-Finn-_**

"where can you even _get _vegan ice cream?" I whisper to myself, while scanning the frozen foods isle at the supermarket.

"Frankenteen," I spin around and jump when my back hits the cold glass door of the ice cream section.

"Santana," I greet her.

"How's baby daddy life, part deux?"

I just narrow my eyes at her. Part duh? "uhh,"

"You buying that vegan crap for my girl?" She inspects the carton in my hands.

"I'm trying, this is normal ice cream, I don't know where to get vegan ice cream," I sigh, and put the carton back on the shelf.

"There's an organic food store downtown across from the pharmacy," She says, grabbing some rocky road and putting it in her cart next to a bag of limes and some salt.

"how do you know?" I ask her, looking curiously at her items.

She rolls her eyes, "the limes and salt are for a party me and brits are going to tonight, and I used to grocery shop for Rach and I. I had to buy vegan shit all the time," She grabs another carton of ice cream and tosses it into the cart, "I'd invite you and Berry to the party, but I dunno if the twins Hudson would appreciate mommy knockin anything back, and you know she'd throw a pregnancy fit if you went without her,"

I nod, "Yeah, I'm not really into parties much anyway, Puck used to drag me along as a wingman, but I don't even think he's been going much since he got with Quinn,"

"mmm, I think she and Puck are going tonight," She says. "Hey by the way, who's Ashleigh?" She starts to push her cart down the isle and motions for me to follow her.

"Uhm, that was the girl Puck used to hook up with on Tuesdays and Thursdays, He was with her the night I met Rachel,"

Santana nods, making eyes at the alcohol section, even though she's not quite 21 yet. I look at her, scoldingly.

"oh come _on_! I'll be 21 in 3 months!" she complains.

I chuckle at her, "Why do you ask about Ashleigh?"

"I just heard Puck on the phone with her the other day after cheerio practice, just watchin my girl Q's back you know? You think he's fucking around on her?"

"Who Puck? A few months ago, I'd say hell yes, but lately I dunno, he seems almost as whipped as I am,"

Santana chuckles a little, "Yeah, Berry's got you wrapped around her little preggers finger huh?"

I shake my head and blush, "I just love her okay? I see the way you look at Brit, you understand,"

She nods softly, "But I don't advertise it, you follow that girl around like a lost puppy and she's the same way, who wears the pants in that relationship?"

I shrug, "I guess we share them, which I don't mind, it just means we respect each other,"

"Yeah yeah, who's having the baby again? Rach or you?"

"shut it Satan," I shove her shoulder playfully.

"You're 21 right?" she asks me.

"God Santana I'm not buying you alcohol, I gotta get to that organic crap store before Rachel calls me and decides she wants something else," Suddenly my hip vibrates and I pull out my phone, it's Rach, "maybe it's too late for that," I wave goodbye to Santana and hurry toward the entrance to the store.

"Rachel I'm pretty sure vegans can't have McDonald's!"

**_-Quinn-_**

"Did you find out who Ashleigh is?" I ask Santana when we get to the party.

"Olson?" Brit asks as she links pinkies with San.

I shake my head no and look at San for an answer.

"Yeah, but I dunno if you'll like this Q," She says quietly.

"Just tell me, let me have it," I know better than to assume Puck is some golden boy. He's flawed, but I need to know what happened so I can address this in a mature way.

"It's a girl he used to hook up with a couple times a week, he was knockin boots with her the night Finn met Rachel,"

"Wow, that was like the day before he met _me,_" I process this for a second. How come he never told me about her, did he stop seeing her? Or did he just ignore her and never tell her things were over? Or maybe things aren't over! Does he not understand that he and I are exclusive? "Where is he? Is he here yet? I will castrate him,"

"Q, you don't know the facts,"

"Yeah and plus that girl is famous, you can't really blame him can you?" Brit adds. Santana shh's her and ushers her into the party, sending me one last look that pleaded with me not to do something crazy.

But before I could calm myself down, I heard his voice. "Hey babe," He mutters in my ear and wraps an arm around me.

"Who the fuck is Ashleigh?" He immediately reels back and his jaw drops open.

"w-what?" He stammers.

"REALLY PUCK? Didn't we JUST establish a complete honesty policy? We got through me kissing Finn but you failed to mention your OTHER girlfriend?"

"Quinn, no. Ashleigh was just a girl I used to fool around with, but, that stopped when we got together I swear. It stopped _before _we got together. She's just been calling me because her boyfriend dumped her. She used to use me as her rebound and that's all this is I promise you!"

"You promise," I repeat.

"Yes god Q, there's no way in hell I would be stupid enough to cheat on you," He takes a step closer to me and wraps his arms around me again, "I know I'm not the best guy, I've made a lot of mistakes and I'll own them but I'm _not _a liar,"

He lets me go and runs his hand through his mohawk. I smile at him and take his hand.

Puck doesn't lie, it's probably one of the best things about him.

We walk into the party and he takes off to get us drinks. I smile after him and look around to find San and Brit.

**_-Puck-_**

Fuckin Ashleigh. Why did she have to call me, I told her the last time was the LAST TIME. I even told her I was interested in Quinn. She said she understood! I guess not. When she started dating that Hockey player I thought maybe she'd leave me alone. But then he dumped her ass and she called me the DAY I started dating Q. I explained to her that there was no way I was going to become a cheater, you keep that label for life. She backed off, until a week or two ago. She'd been calling me almost everyday and I ignored it. Santana saw the ONE time I answered the phone to tell her lay off. Damn Satan.

Well thank god that's over.

I make my way over to the keg and grab a couple cups, just as I reach them a manicured hand wraps around mine and I swear out loud.

"Hey," her voice purrs.

"Ash, I told you to back off," I look at her face, her huge ice blue eyes, her skin coppery from years of tanning and cropped bleach blonde hair. She was so, fake looking.

"But you don't mean it," She inches closer to my face and my jaw clenches. "Do you?" her breath smells like wine coolers and she's already slurring her words.

"Yes, I do mean it, I," But before I can finish She's closed the gap between us and is trying to stick her alcohol soaked tongue down my throat. I shove her off of me, harder than you should to a girl.

That's when I see Quinn at the doorway to the kitchen, her beautiful green eyes filled to the brim with tears and her hand over her mouth.

"Q, no fucking way is this what it looks like!" I exclaim.

But she shakes her head and turns around, sprinting away from me.

I turn to look at Ashleigh, who is leaning against the counter, laughing at the display before her.

"Dammit Ashleigh, What the fuck is wrong with you? I don't WANT you! I want HER!"

She clamps her mouth shut and it tightens into a thin line. But I'm out of there and after Quinn before she can respond.

**Ohhhh! Quick Drama! It's so fun to experiment with the levels of their personalities. Let's see how Puck digs himself out of this one, poor thing, it wasn't actually his fault this time. **

**Also I laughed a bit myself at Rachel's crazy hormones, that's fun too. So more of that until the finchel drama comes back :) **

**The valentine's day chapter I think I'll write in two parts, I'm going to write about each couple's valentines day and it looks like Puck is going to spend his begging for forgiveness, and Finn is going to spend his buying vegan chocolate by the truck load :P haha, we'll see! **

**read, review & repeat! cuz your reviews are awesome and I love you ALL! **

**sincerely your gracious author.**


	19. My Faith Shaken

__**It's going DOWN in this chapter. Seriously, a couple bombs are dropped. Alot happens for Quinn. After valentines day I think I'll be done with Quick chapters for awhile, and I'll be focusing back on Finn and Rachel because (hint) someone new walks into one of their lives and pops their blissed out baby bubble :) mwahahahhaa. enjoy!**

_**-Quinn-**_

I felt the alcohol burning through my body, making my skin feel warm and tingly as it made contact with the brisk, cold air outside the frat party. My eyes stung while tears poured down my cheeks. How could he do that? He JUST told me that nothing was going on!

"Come back baby," A girl purred from behind me, I spun around and saw Puck rushing toward me. I stumbled backward and felt myself tripping over the gravel. Puck was at my side with his strong arms wrapped around my waist, catching me and he lifted me upright.

I tore his arms away from me, "Don't touch me," I hissed at him with a sob caught in my throat.

The girl in the doorway was the girl who minutes ago had her nasty drunk lips on my man. I glared at her, with mascara, no doubt, running down my face. I hastily wiped it away. I'm not this girl, I hung my head and looked at my sandals, I don't cry over boys. I haven't cried over a boy since my freshmen year of high school. I looked up at Puck, who had a mix of concern and guilt masking his face. What has this man done to me?

"Hey, forget about her," The drunk girl at the door slurred.

"Go the FUCK away Ashleigh!" Puck roared. I jumped at the angry tone in his voice. Why was HE mad! Ashleigh? _That's _ the girl from the phone? Jesus, why am I at war for a boy with _her. _She looks like she just stepped of Jersey Shore, and ate Snooki on her way here.

"No, Puck, go back inside, I'm not prepared to argue about this, I think we should be apart for awhile," I say, my voice shaking.

"Quinn, No, you need to let me explain. I have NO interest in her!" He says, flustered, pointing at the girl about to pass out against the door frame. "I swear, baby, please, you have to believe me,"

For a second, I want to forgive him and fall back into his arms, the way he calls me baby, makes my knees weak. But then I think about how _she _called _him_ baby. So desperate and dirty. When he says it, it sounds so full of love. He loves me, I try to remind myself. But I keep picturing her kissing him and dragging out that "baby", and I'm suddenly imagining that instead of that girl's face, it's every girl's face. I don't want to go through this every other day with him. I don't need to be constantly batting girls off of him with a stick. It's not fair of me to tie him down.

"I believe you, but it's not going to end Puck, I can't make you stop being you for me, it's selfish." I say sadly.

"No, Quinn, at first, yeah I thought all this boyfriend stuff made me a bitch, but I **love **you, and for the first time I want that to mean something,"

I take in a deep breath when he stops talking to look down at the ground. His shoulders tremble slightly and he looks back at me. A single tear slides down his cheek and off his chin.

"I can't do this," I turn around, trying to get away from him as fast as I can. If I stay there a second longer I'm going to cave. By the time I get back to my car, I slam my forehead against the steering wheel, my body racked by my sobs. I sit up and lean against the head rest, exhausted. It starts to rain outside as I sit there. I sit for what feels like hours, waiting for the pain in my chest to recede. But it never does.

_**-Finn-**_

I'm exhausted. Pregnant girlfriend, depressed roommate, frantic mother, crazy step-brother. I need a vacation. Rach comes first, I know that. I can handle her mood swings and her weird cravings and her constant need to have sex with me (that I'm absolutely okay with). But Puck has been in bed for days, saying Quinn's name in his sleep, being crankier than usual and yelling at me all the time. "Stop whining! At least YOUR girlfriend still LOVES you!" "Go get Rachel her damn mexican food! She LOVES you, she deserves her damn FOOD!" "Why doesn't Quinn love me anymore?"

"She does Puck, she's just being Quinn, tell me what she said to you again?"

"That it was selfish of her to make me stop being me, what does that even mean?"

"It means she thinks that being you means sleeping around and she probably thinks you miss that and she doesn't know how to deal with it,"

"Damn Hudson, when did you get so wise? You're like modern day confuscious,"

Alright, wise and confused are NOT the same thing. "Nah, Rachel told me all of this yesterday, I'm just the messenger,"

"oh, well, thank her for me,"

I nod and grab my wallet, Rach is at the mall for some girl's day thing and I'm supposed to drop off some Taco Bell for her.

_**-Rachel-**_

Where's Finn with my food? I keep staring at the entrance to the mall.

"Rachel, Rachel!" I snap my focus back to San, who's staring at me. "Chill, he's on his way, you'll get your damn mexican, since when can vegans eat mexican anyway?"

"They can't, but it's not for me, it's for my babies. It must be the Finn in them, quite healthy appetites they've got," I say, rubbing my tummy. I get bigger everyday, especially considering I've got two in there and not just one. I can't wait to find out if they're girls or boys or a girl and a boy or, wait that's all the combinations.

"RACHEL!" they shout at me again, yanking me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about the babies," I say smiling and looking at my tummy.

They roll their eyes and smile at me, "We can't wait til they're here,"

"I want to be an aunt already!" Santana exclaims, "I'm going to spoil those kids rotten, it's the perfect setup, they're going to love me and so I get them when they're all adorable and sweet and then they go home to you when they're cranky and I never have to discipline them!"

"That's a terrible setup," Quinn tells her.

"Yeah, for Rachel and Finn," San points out. I shake my head at her.

"You are not turning my kids against me, Satan," I say jokingly.

She sticks her tongue out and takes a long slurp of her milkshake.

"ugh, don't do that, I've been having morning sickness," I stifle a wave of nausea.

She swallows and murmurs an apology.

"How are you and Sam doing?" Tina asks Mercedes, changing the subject thankfully.

"Same old same old," Mercedes says bitterly. She tosses an irritated look at me, Q, San and Brit. Quinn looks at me, confused and I shrug my shouders.

"What do you mean?" Quinn asks her.

"All he talks about is Quinn this, or Rachel that, or someone needs to keep an eye on Brit or make sure San's okay when you see her. It's driving me insane!"

"He's been like our brother for two years Mercedes, he looks out for us, it's not something he can shut off just because he has a girlfriend," Quinn explains, looking at Tina for help.

"Hun, you don't need to be concerned about it, it's harmless," Tina comforts.

Mercedes shrugs her off, "I'm not concerned, I'm irritated," She throws another look at us.

I can feel my baby hormones switching on and pissing me off. "Alright if you were planning on just giving us dirty looks all day them why did you come?" I spit at her.

Quinn puts a hand on my shoulder, attempting to calm me down. This day was about escaping all the hostel drama in our lives. My pregnancy, Mercedes' fight with Sam, San's sexuality drama, Quinn's breakup with Noah. Brit and Tina are the only ones who are only in it for the shopping.

"No Quinn, it's not our fault that he's so protective over us, and none of us are out to steal him away, I mean Brit and San don't even LIKE boys! I'm practically married! and Quinn is clearly broken up about Noah! You just had a petty fight with your boyfriend of like a month, back the fuck off of us okay?" I slump into my seat, exhausted from my outburst. "WHERE'S MY DAMN FOOD?"

"uhm, sorry, the cashier was giving me a hard time," I hear Finn's hesitant voice behind me, a smile attaches itself to my face and I stand up and throw myself into his arms.

"Thank god!" I say, relieved.

"Are you okay? What's going on?"

"Your baby mama just wrecked Mercedes' shit!" Santana bursts and erupts into laughter.

Mercedes just sits back in her chair, speechless. Tina looks at Finn with a look that says "dear god take me away from here."

Quinn's head is in her hands, her face hidden but her shoulders are shaking, so she's crying over Noah again.

Brit's attention is occupied by her purchases, her face is buried in one of her bags.

"Rachel," Finn pleads. "You promised me you were going to be nice,"

"I'm sorry," I take my bag of food and tuck some hair behind my ear.

"Not to me," He says, nudging me toward Mercedes.

I take a breath, "I'm sorry I yelled at you Mercedes,"

She nods, "It's your hormones talking," I smile and she continues, "and you were sort of right, I've been so pissed off over all the time Sam spends with you guys that I forgot that you all have stuff going on, I mean when he's with you he's helping, it's not like he's cheating on me," She says smirking at the thought.

Suddenly Quinn's head pops up, she wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and stands, "I gotta go,"

"But, you're my ride," I say to her, "Finn?"

"I gotta go to work babe, the shop needs me,"

I smile at him, he got a job at a tire shop last week, he's really doing the best he can to prepare for these babies. "I'm so proud of you,"

He leans down and give me a soft kiss and I can feel my hormones acting up again, they want to attack him then and there. Finn recognizes the look in my eyes and clears his throat. I snap out of it and turn back to Quinn, "I'll just go with you now, if that's okay," I say.

"Yeah, sure, sorry girls, San, I'll call you about the party okay?" San's been taking Quinn party hopping since the breakup. I don't think it's good for her, but it seems to be making her feel better. She doesn't even drink at the parties, she told me, they just take her mind off things. Sam keeps an eye on her while Santana parties, so if she needs to leave Sam's there for her. He's the best fake brother ever. I guess I can see where Mercedes is coming from, but my hormones combined with my pride are keeping me from admitting it.

Quinn and I walk back to her car, well I waddle. As soon as we start moving, Quinn bursts into tears.

"Woah, Q, crying and driving is NOT a good idea, what's the matter?"

"I'm such a terrible person,"

"Why?"

"You know what Mercedes said, about Sam not cheating on her?"

"oh, Quinn," I say, realization dawning on me. Sam's helping Quinn get over Noah in more ways than one. So much for being a brother.

"I slept with him a few days after the breakup, after the big fight he had with Mercedes. It just happened, I know that sounds cliche but I'm serious,"

"Quinn," I sigh, "It's gonna be okay," but she shakes her head 'no' furiously.

"That's not all," She cries a little harder, "I'm pregnant,"

"OH GOD!" I exclaim. "QUINN!" I scold, then I gesture to myself, "THIS! Isn't all it's cracked up to be! How did this happen? Oh god, who's is it?"

"I don't know! I won't until the doctor tells me how far along I am, if I'm more than a couple weeks, it's Puck's, if not, it's Sam's,"

"Who's do you want it to be?" I ask her.

She pulls the car into the parking lot of a fast food place and sobs loudly into the steering wheel. I think that means Puck.

"I'm so stupid, how could I believe that sleeping with Sam would make me fall out of love with Puck, I shouldn't have broken up with him, Finn told me he's miserable! Now I've fucked EVERYTHING up, god Mercedes is going to kill me! What if it's Sam's? How do I tell him!"

I look at my broken friend, I can't help but cry with her. So that's what we do, I unbuckle and wrap my arms around her until she calms down enough to drive us back to her dorm. Then I hold her while she takes the call from the doctor.

**Okay, So I've decided two things. The genders of the twins and the names. I'm going with two girls, Faith Elizabeth (faith was a suggestion from a reviewer and elizabeth is kurt's middle name) and Audrey Barbra (Audrey Hepburn and Barbra Streisand) what do you think? Also, don't shoot me over the Quinn-Sam-Puck-Baby debacle. It has a purpose, I didn't just toss it in there randomly. You find out who the baby daddy is in the second valentines day chapter. I'm writing it in two parts. **

**Part one- Klaine, Quick & Britana**

**Part two- Tike, Samcedes & Finchel **

**who has a v-day full of love and fluff? who has a v-day full of heartbreak? We'll see. **

**Read, Review & Repeat! **

**Sincerely, your awesome (if I do say so myself) author :)**


	20. Chicken Feet and a Wicked VDay

**I know it's not Valentine's Day yet. I hope to get the next chapter posted on, or around V-day for the sake of keeping the timeline matched up with real life, for the most part. But here we go, enjoy!**

_**-Rachel-**_

"Quinn! Thank god, what'd the doctor say? Is it his?" I ask her as she comes through the door to my room and sits down on my bed.

She nods, looking down at her cell phone.

"You need to call him and tell him." I assure her, sitting down next to her and rubbing her shoulder.

"Shouldn't you be planning your big valentines day date with Finn? It's tomorrow."

"Finn won't let me, he's insisting on doing all of the planning and keeping it a surprise, it's driving me crazy! But stop trying to change the subject, CALL him!" I point at her phone.

She nods, staring at it. I sigh, if she's waiting until the nerves go away, he'll never get the news.

**_-Quinn-_**

I left Rachel's room and I still haven't called him. I keep staring at my phone, mentally preparing myself. I almost dialed his complete phone number before I wimped out.

I take a deep breath, I can do this. I punch in the numbers and lean against the wall in the hallway of Rachel's dorm for support. It rings.

"Hey, um, do you want to go out tomorrow night? I need to talk to you, it's really important." I say, my voice shaking.

_**-Puck-**_

Operation Win Back Quinn's Heart is a go. What better time to sweep a girl off her feet than the holiday dedicated to making men spend hundreds of dollars and lonely people feel even lonlier? Chicks eat this shit up.

It is on the day before Valentine's day that I, Puckzilla, find myself pushing a shopping cart filled with a dozen boxes of chocolate and this, stupid as hell, four foot tall teddy bear. How much lower can a guy fall?

Maybe for Valentine's Day, Quinn will give me back my balls.

"Dude, help me out here!" Finn appears by my side carrying two different bouqets. "Roses? Or Lilies?"

"I don't fucking know, all I know is I need to hurry the fuck up and buy this shit before someone sees me, or I grow a vagina," I look at him staring hard at those damn flowers, "I guess it's too late for you,"

"Shut up, Rachel's pregnant which means she's going to want everything to be even more perfect than usual. What if pregnant women can't eat the kind of chocolate I get her? Or what if the restaurant we go to is smoker-friendly? If my kids are around cigarette smoke, they could grow an extra arm or something!"

"Stop your whining, cook some fancy vegan meal for her or something, she'll love that sappy shit." My little Jewish American Princess would totally go apeshit over Finnessa doing something BEYOND romantic, it would let her know that he listens to her or he's stepping up with this whole baby daddy thing. She's such a girl.

"Rachel's like a damn swan okay? She mates for life! I, on the other hand, am going through a real crisis! Quinn won't take me back if I half-ass this, I need to show her that I'm in it for the long haul," I toss another box of chocolates into the cart and make my way toward the jewlery. Oh look, a valentine's day sale.

What the FUCK is wrong with me!

Suddenly my phone goes off, vibrating loudly in my pocket. I gesture for Finn to grab the cart and I pull out my phone.

It's Quinn! "Hey!"

_**-Sam-**_

Today is the day I find out if I'm a father. I should be getting the call any minute. This call will determine the rest of my life. The last time a phone call was this important, was when I had entered a contest to win tickets to see Star Wars On Ice. As you can see, the importance level differs vastly. This call will also determine what I have to tell Mercedes tomorrow. I have to tell her what happened between Quinn and I no matter what, but I'd rather not have to add that there's going to be a little bundle of proof thrown into the mix. It's been killing me having to keep this from Mercedes.

The theme song from Star Wars fills my dorm room and I dive onto my bed to grab my phone.

"Quinn! Hey!"

_**-Blaine-**_

Valentine's Day has arrived. I knock at Kurt's apartment door, and smooth my bowtie.

"Blaine! I'll be ready in TWO seconds," Kurt opens the door and announces before returning to his bedroom.

Oh goodness, maybe I should call the restaurant and tell them to hold the reservation for an hour or so.

_**-Tina-**_

It's Valentine's Day and hear I am, eating dim sum with Mike and his mom. His MOM! Mike shoots me an apologetic look from across the table.

"I doubt he even CARED that it was Valentine's day!" Mike's mother sobs into a napkin and gestures for the waiter to bring more salad.

Salad with chicken feet. CHICKEN FEET!

"Excuse me, I'm, going to run to the bathroom," Mike's mother gets up from the table and continues to sob all the way to the restroom.

"All I wanted was a normal night out," I mumble.

"Normal? This is normal." Mike replies, as the waiter sets the salad on the table. "There's salad."

"With chicken feet in it! All I wanted was a nice night out at a restaurant that would serve me salad WITHOUT chicken feet in it! Why did your father have to forget what day it is?" I drop my head into my hands and Mike soothingly rubs my shoulder.

Speak of the devil, his father walks into the restaurant and calls out to us, a stricken look on his face.

"Where's your mother? Oh god, I feel awful!" He paces in front of our table.

Mike looks at me, hope flashing in his eyes. "Dad! Have a seat, Mom will be right out. Tina and I, are going to go, get her." He stammers and grabs my hand. He looks behind him at his father who sat down at the table and pushed around some salad on a plate.

Smiling at me, he leads me toward the door. "How does a movie sound?"

"Perfect," I say, kissing his cheek.

Take that, chicken feet!

_**-Kurt-**_

"So what if we were a few minutes late to our reservation," I say, shifting in my seat in the taxi.

Blaine gives me a knowing look.

"Okay, an hour late to our reservation. We don't need a fancy dinner to make this night special," I take his hand in mine and smile.

"Kurt, I'm not telling you where we're going," Blaine shakes his head.

"Ugh! But I feel like we've been riding this, this, matchbox car! For HOURS!" I look, disgustedly at the taxi cab driver, who smells like craigslist and is currently putting out his cigarette on the steering wheel.

Blaine chuckles, "It's only been ten minutes, we're almost there,"

I sigh and look out the window. I see lights, and billboards. Then I see one billboard in particular, the billboard that broadcasts one of the best plays I've ever seen. Wicked. I don't even realize that the cab has stopped until I feel Blaine tugging on my hand.

I follow him, not taking my eyes off of the words above the theatre.

"Blaine?"

"hmm?"

"Why are we here?"

"I have connections with the security in there. They are, very generously, allowing us to move our special Valentine's Day dinner, onto the Broadway stage."

"Oh my god. Blaine Anderson have I mentioned how amazing you are lately!" I kiss his cheek enthusiastically and sprint to the back door to the theatre.

He catches up with me and a big, intimidating security guard shakes Blaine's hand and lets us in.

There's a small table set up on the stage, right under the prop tower. The spotlights give the room an enchanting glow, and the wood of the stage creaks slightly under our feet.

I've never felt closer to my dreams than I feel right now. I stare at my surroundings in awe, while Blaine removes the covers of our food. I'm barely hungry. But he went to so much trouble for this.

I sit down across from him, still basking in the wonder of our date.

He takes my hand and holds up a glass of white wine. "To dreams," He says.

I stifle ecstatic tears and hold up my own glass, nodding and clinking it with his.

Best Valentine's Day ever.

_**-Puck-**_

I knock on Quinn's door, trying to see over this ridiculously oversized bear while balancing the chocolate and flowers.

She answers the door, in tears, and throws a hand over her mouth when she sees what I'm carrying.

"Oh, Puck," She whispers.

I drop the gifts, fuck it, they're not me anyway, and take her into my arms. "What is it? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come without calling, I just wanted to see you. It's Valentine's Day and however stupid it may sound, there's no one else I wanted to be with,"

She sniffles and looks at me. "No, Puck, don't be sorry, okay? I, just, I need to tell you something."

I nod, recalling what she'd said on the phone.

"I'm pregnant." Her words were barely a whisper. But I heard them loud and clear.

I point to myself, "mine?"

She's only silent. When she answers me, I swear my eardrums explode.

**ooooooh! Sorry guys, it's fun playing this game. Sam or Puck, Sam or Puck. You'll find out on Sam's date with Mercedes. I don't know when the next chapter will be up. This one took FOR-EV-ER! My computer was being evil and it kept screwing up before I could save. It was maddening! Next up will be a very fluffy finchel v-day, as well as a very low-key britana v-day and a very revealing samcedes v-day. I can already tell you that Samcedes will be parting, I mean he cheated on her. I simply cannot let that stand. But it is unknown, even to me, if and when they get back together. Could be in a few chapters, could be in the sequel. We shall see!**

**Read, Review & Repeat! **

**Sincerely your mysterious author. :)**


	21. Love is Blind

__**Y'all have NO idea how hard it was waiting until now to post this. I wanted to do it last week, and last weekend and yesterday! But it needed to wait until now. I hope it was worth the wait, let me know your thoughts, suggestions and of course compliments are always welcome! Happy Valentine's Day -or- Single's Awareness Day, however you see it! :) enjoy!**

_**-Puck-**_

__"mine?" I point to myself. My eyes searching her tear-stained face for some kind of sign. Her cheeks are flushed and her chin is quivering.

She's silent for what feels like forever.

She opens her mouth to speak but a sob gets caught in her throat. That's when I see movement over her shoulder.

A mop of blonde hair sits up on the bed.

I look at her, accusingly and her eyes widen in fear. "No, Puck, no, I'm not, I mean, he's not, I was just telling him about the pregnancy."

"Why did _he_ find out before _me_?" my head is throbbing, if she wasn't standing right in my way, my fist would be all over that guppy mouth like white on rice.

"Because, Puck, he's not the father, _you_ are."

"I'm, gonna go." Sam stammers. He slips around me, easily considering I'm leaning against the doorframe to keep myself from falling to the damn floor, and sprints down the hall. Why did he look so afraid of me? And wasn't it obvious that he wasn't the father?... Right?... RIGHT?

"Quinn..." I start, she looks at me, her body still shaking and I'm anticipating waterworks at any moment. "Why would you think Sam was the father?" I say, calmly, though I already know the answer. I just need to hear her say it. After all the insecurities and SHE broke up with ME because she thought I was going to cheat, she's the one who cheated on me once already and then hooked up with Sam while he had a girlfriend.

I slam my hand onto the doorframe, she jumps. "say it."

She just bursts into tears, "I'm so sorry." her knees shake and then give way as she slumps to the floor and leans her forehead against the door.

I sigh, she doesn't need this. What's done is done. I join her on the floor and I'm about to pull her into my arms when I'm suddenly face to babies with Berry's belly.

"Quinn?"

There are two too many pregnant women here.

_**-Quinn-**_

"what am I gonna do?" I sob into my pillow. Puck left when Rachel came storming in, insisting on some baby mama bonding. She waddled over to my bed, protectively holding her ever growing tummy, god I'm going to get SO BIG!

"Shhh." Rachel was comforting me, rubbing small circles on my back, something that always calms me down. Something that Puck always used to do.

The door bust open and Santana stormed in. "Why the FUCK am I the last to know about your bun in the oven!"

"Santana, I'm sorry, there's just been so much I've had to think about and I wanted the father to know before it got around school. I didn't want everyone buzzing before I had a chance to tell the him."

"Well, princess, your plan failed. I hope you told him in time, because the whole campus knows. Loud mouth Diva McGee made sure of that."

"YOU TOLD?" I turn to Rachel, shocked, betrayed!

"I would NEVER!" Rachel defends.

Santana hurries over to me and grabs my shoulders, "Chill out mama bear! Not Rachel, Mercedes! She's super pissed about your rendezvous with guppy mouth that she blabbed in the cafeteria." She gives me a smirk, "Nice going by the way, he's pretty cute for a complete raving nerd."

I roll my eyes. "Poor Mercedes, nothing says happy valentine's day like that kind of news,"

**_-Sam-_**

I dodged yet another pillow and tried to get ahold of her wrists, "Mercedes listen to me! It was a mistake, we'd just gotten into a fight and she was still upset about Puck. I know that didn't give me the right to do what I did but you need to know that I'm sorry!"

"That's not enough Evans! Get it through your white & nerdy mop of bieber hair! WE ARE FINISHED! DONE! OVER! Got it?" She screeched at me and shoved me out into the hallway. "Have fun with the pregnant pair!"

"But Mercedes, I'm not the f-" The door slams in my face before I can finish. Happy Valentine's Day.

**_-Rachel-_**

I make my way back to Quinn's immediately after english lit. The news of her pregnancy spread faster than the news of mine and she's still freaking out, she never misses English Lit. Before I can knock I hear voices.

"Everyone knows, what if my parents hear?" Her voice quivers with tears.

"Shhh, your parents can't hurt you, you hear me? I'm here and everything is going to be fine," His voice is low and soothing. It's his Quinn voice, he only uses it when he thinks no one can hear him.

"I love you, you know?" He adds softly.

There's movement and I think she's crying again. "I love you too." She manages. Well thank god. I've been waiting for her to admit it out loud for weeks.

I love Sam, right to death. But I'm really kind of happy that the baby is Noah's. Sam's not ready to grow up all the way yet, but I can tell Noah has just been waiting for the right excuse to start acting like an adult.

My hip vibrates and pull my phone out. Finn.

_hey, meet me back at my dorm. Its time for ur surprise - Finn_

I smile. He's been secretive all week. I can only imagine what he's got planned.

**_-Puck-_**

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans and stood outside Sam's door. I could hear him watching that avatar movie from out here. It's turned up loud, which means he's in a terrible mood. Must've broken the news to that girl of his.

I knock loudly on the door, "SAM!"

I hear the sound of cans falling onto the floor and footsteps making there way to the door. He opens it up and immediately cringes.

"Don't kill me," He says, tiredly.

I chuckle, "I'm not here to destroy you, even though I have thought about it. I've chosen to overlook what happened, after some serious convincing from Finn and Berry, I'm just here to reinstate our friendship." I stick my hand out, "You still my boy?"

He slowly nods, "Of course man, and congratulations by the way. I'm glad it's you."

I shake his hand and smile a little, "Thanks man, me too,"

**_-Finn-_**

I'm the best boyfriend in the world. I swing Rachel around in my arms and kiss her forehead, "Happy Valentine's Day." I whisper.

She sighs and tightens her grip around my neck.

I wriggle lose and walk over to my dresser, picking up a black scarf and carry it over to her.

"What's that for?" She wrinkles her nose at it, out of confusion.

I just smile and tie it over her eyes, "You can't take it off until we're there okay?"

"Until we're where?"

"The top secret surprise location!" She giggles at my enthusiasm and lets me lead her out of the room and out to my truck.

She keeps bouncing up and down on the seat, blindly. The way she does when she's anxious. "Please Finn, just tell me!"

"No! I've kept it a secret this long and I'm not going to ruin it now! We're almost there!" I pull up to the brick building and turn the truck off.

"Come on Finn!" She whines. I just smile at her, though she can't see me, and take her hand.

I lead her into the building and into the elevator, and push the button for floor 4.

"Where the heck are we going!" She complains exasperated.

"It'll be worth it, just be patient." The elevator doors open and I lead her carefully to the right door and untie her blindfold.

**_-Rachel-_**

I'm staring at a white door with a gold 208 numbering it. Finn smiles knowingly at me while my mind swims with possibilities.

"Is this?" I point at the door, unable to speak my mind.

Finn puts a key in the door and swings it open. Revealing a spacious apartment, empty, except for a blue blanket laid out in the middle of the floor surrounded by various candles and adorn with a picnic basket.

"Oh Finn!" I clasp a hand over my mouth and bask in the romanticism of the gesture.

He leans close to my ear and whispers, "Welcome home."

"Oh my god, it's perfect." I sigh.

He takes my hand and we walk over to the blanket and sit down.

"I put the payment down a couple weeks ago, It's got two bedrooms and one of those tiny deck things over there," He points to a sliding door in what will be the living room that opens to a cute little balcony. The apartment is shaped like a square, the two bedrooms being the two top corners and the open kitchen/living room being the bottom half. The bedrooms are separated by a good sized bathroom. With furniture and details and lots of help from Kurt, it will be perfect.

My throat is dry and I feel like it's all a dream. "This is perfect, Finn, you're perfect," I lean over the basket and kiss him softly. He cups my cheek and deepens the kiss, tracing my bottom lip with his tongue until I meet it with mine.

He whispers I love you against my lips and I curl up next to his chest.

He moves his hand from my cheek to my stomach, tracing his words with his finger.

Happy Valentine's Day to us. All four of us.

**awwww! Haha, _someone_ had to have a perfect valentine's day in this chapter! Might as well be Finchel! :D I believe the next chapter is either another February chapter or it goes right into March. We'll see. Whatever needs to be written, shall be written! :) **

**Read, Review & Repeat! :D**

**sincerely your lovesick ;) author **


	22. Have a little faith

**This chapter is very heavy on the finchel. Actually it's entirely finchel. But hey, the story is listed under Finn and Rachel for a reason. :) **

_**-Finn-**_

It's quiet without Rachel hear to talk about the baby. I made a trip back home to Lima for one weekend to pack up some of my things to move into the apartment. Rachel would have joined me but her professor really laid on the homework this week. So here I am, alone, packing yearbooks, trophies, and various care packages made by my mom into the bed of my truck.

"Finn!" My mom called from the porch. "Some of your old things got put into Kurt's room if you want to go through that too!" She's baking another batch of cookies for me to eat on my drive back to New York. Like I won't stop for food on the way or something.

I nod and head back inside to go down to Kurt's room.

Once I get down there the first thing I notice is that the room still smells faintly of Kurt's moisturizer, the second thing I notice is my drum set from high school chilling out in the corner. Overwhelmed by memories, I wander over to it and run my fingers over the crash cymbal and shiver at the sound it makes.

I sit comfortably behind it and pick up the drumsticks sitting on the snare drum. I spin them around my fingers a bit, getting used to the feel of them again.

I fall right back into it and bust out a rhythm. I missed this. Why did I give it up? Oh yeah, I couldn't bring the set with me to New York, and I guess time just slipped away from me. There's a set at the music department on campus, I bet they'd let me use it once in awhile.

Or more than once in awhile. A thought struck me as I hit the ride cymbal, I could start a band.

**_-Rachel- _**

Finn should be here soon with the rest of his stuff. I run my hand over the soft material of the comforter on my, no _our _bed. Sighing I lay down on it, letting my head sink down onto the pillows. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until my eyes, unable to keep themselves open, flutter closed and my mind drifts away from our apartment.

I dream that Finn and I have been married for years, our twins are teenagers themselves, two boys. I've come home from performing a late show to find Finn and the boys lounging on the couch eating takeout.

"I'm home!" I announce.

The boys turn and look at me, confused. "Dad, who is that?" one of them asks Finn.

"I think it's Rachel, your mother." He stands off the couch and carefully walks over to me. "Rachel?"

"Yes, of course it's me. Who else would it be?" I ask, impatiently. What kind of game is this?

"I'm sorry, it's just I feel like we haven't seen you in months. Ever since your dreams came true, you're never home."

"That's not true! I spend every minute I can with you and our kids!" I argue, my hands are beginning to shake and my chest tightens.

"Oh yeah? What's his name?" Finn points at one of the boys, who is still looking at me like I'm a stranger.

"It's, It's," I begin, but I realize that I don't know. I don't know my children's names! I'm never home to love them and spend time with them, I don't know them!

"You might as well just leave, Rachel. Go back to your co-stars, they're more like your family than we'll ever be. I should have known you would choose your career over us. Did everything I've done for you mean nothing?" Finn's voice is desperate, searching for answers. I can hear it clear as day.

I open my mouth to speak, to tell him that it's not true, to tell him that I love him and everything he does. But I can't.

"Rachel?" He says, frantically trying to get my attention. But I feel myself being pulled from the room.

"Mommy?" my children call for me. Finn calls my name until I can barely hear him.

"Rachel!" My eyes snap open. I'm in our room. "Rachel." the voice says again. I focus at the face staring, worriedly down at me. Kurt.

Tears spill over my cheeks. "I can't do this! I can't be a mother, and, and the woman that Finn needs, and a star, I, I can't do it!" I sob.

"Shhh," Kurt whispers. "You can, I know you can. You're going to do amazing things Rachel, I have so much faith in you, and Finn loves you. Rachel, you're going to be an amazing mother. Give yourself some more credit."

"But, but, being on broadway, performing late, being in the spotlight, I mean, what if Finn resents me? Or what if he thinks he's holding me back? Or worse, what if he _does_?" Panic washes over me and I can hear Dream-Finn's voice in my head. 'I should have known you would choose your career over us.'

"Kurt, does Finn ever worry that I'm going to choose fame over him? You'rer his brother, he'd talk to you right?"

"Rachel, everyone has their fears. But Finn knows that you love him and that's all he needs to know, he has faith in you too. Have some in yourself, okay? Now, clean yourself up, Finn should be here any minute." Kurt rubs my shoulders and my shudders fade away.

Faith. All I need is faith.

**_-Sam- _**

Finn pounding away on a drumset was not what I'd expected to see when I walked into music theory today. But there he is, in his own little world.

"Finn?" I ask.

Nothing. This would be the...fifth time I've tried to get his attention.

I hear Kurt's boots clomping into the room behind me. "FINN!" he exclaims.

Finn looks up, startled. "eh?"

"Sam wants you." he shrugs and takes his seat.

Finn turns to me, "You could've said something." He says. I nod, of course.

"Drum kick?" I motion to the set and he places the sticks carefully on the stool after standing up and then shoves his hands into his pockets awkwardly.

"Yeah, um hey, you play guitar right?" He asks me and I nod. "And I've heard you sing. I have a proposition for you."

He takes a few steps closer to me. "I've missed music being a part of my life. I mean, yeah I've got this class and Rachel is a walking musical. But, Rachel always says being a part of something special makes you special." He stops and looks back at the set. "I want to start a band. You in?"

-**_Kurt-_**

"Hell YES!" Sam exclaims. His gigantic lips stretching into a whole-hearted grin as he shakes Finn's hand.

"What?" I ask curiously. "Hell yes what?"

"Finn's starting a band, and I just agreed to join it." Sam explains.

None of us heard the pregnant duo enter the room.

"WHAT?" My favorite diva clings to Quinn, who flinches, and glares daggers at Finn.

"uh-oh, let's go practice scales," I murmur and usher everyone who isn't inside Rachel's "blissed out baby bubble" into the adjoining auditorium.

**_-Rachel-_**

"A band? Finn! Why didn't I hear about this?"

"I, I didn't want to say anything until I knew it could happen." He stammers, his face paling at the sight of my obvious disapproval.

"Well you must know it _can't _happen!"

"Why not?" He asks, sounding like a child who was just denied candy.

"Because Finn, we're pregnant! We just moved in together! Don't you think we should wait until we've evaded the current obstacle before facing another?"

"I have no idea what any of that means." He says quietly, his hand awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"I mean, we need to focus on one thing at a time. If we overwhelm ourselves, it will only stress us out and if we're stressed out, we fight and if we fight, who KNOWS what will come of us! Finn, I feel like I'm hanging onto you by a thread!" I feel the tears brimming my eyes. "You're already making decisions without me and you _know_ how insecure I can get about being excluded. I, I just don't want you to realize how much better you can do, or worse, I don't want you to resent me or regret me and, and our babies, Finn. A band, it takes time, and commitment and being a parent means being flexible and living life for your children first!"

"What about when we graduate and you start taking on auditions and broadway and all that acting stuff?" He counters.

"Don't you think I've thought of that? I've been so, scared of having to choose between my career and you and now I know that if it comes down to it I'll have to pick family. I couldn't leave my children behind like that." I realize then that I've spoken without thinking because Finn recoils.

"So, so if you weren't pregnant. You'd choose your career over me? You're choosing family because you _have_ to?"

"No, Finn that's not what I meant." I try to take his hand but he pulls away.

"But it's what you said. You, think this, us, it's an obligation because you're pregnant? Because that's exactly why I couldn't be with Lucy remember? I chose you." His voice cracks at the last sentence and he stares, defeated, at my stomach.

"No, Finn, I _love _you. I love you so much, I want to have this family with you so bad and I'm just scared of something messing it up. But broadway has been my dream for so long and it's just hard."

"You can still have your dreams Rachel, I would never ask you to give them up."

"I know." Is all I say.

"We could make it work, we could do it all. You know we could."

I simply wipe away the tears from my face.

"I wish you'd have a little more faith in us Rachel, in me." He steps toward me and cradles my head against his chest.

There's that word again. Faith. What does it even mean? And why does it seem like I don't have any?

"I might surprise you." He adds. Kissing the top of my head.

I want to tell him that he does. He surprises and amazes me everyday.

But all I can manage to say is, "A band is a great idea." in a soft whisper that I'm not even sure he can hear.

But the way I can feel him smiling into my hair tells me he heard me. But he's too good of a person to make a big deal of it. He simply kisses my head again and then my temple, and murmurs "Thank you." against my cheek before kissing it too.

**Well there you go. Finn's starting a band, Rachel's searching for some faith. But what's going on with everyone else? We shall see in the next chapter! **

**read, review & repeat! :)**

**sincerely your faithful *see what I did there? ;)* author.**


	23. Dream On

**Here we finally are :) sorry for the wait. This is another chapter of what used to be Checked Out, rated T. But obviously I changed the title and rating. :) hopefully none of you got lost, because I love you all and your reviews and I would be immensly distraught if any of you went missing :( **

**but anyway, enjoy the chapter! **

**_-Finn-_**

We actually sound pretty good. With me on the drums, Sam broke out his bass, Puck's on guitar and we even have Blaine doing vocals.

Mike decided to be our manager and he hired his cousin who lives in the area to help carry equipment and what not.

We're practicing in this bar/club down the street from Kurt's apartment. He agreed to let us practice and even play sometimes if we clean the place up after closing. Which isn't so bad, aside from the nasty things we find in the bathrooms on occasion.

I'm practicing on my own, the other guys have class, when the weekday bartender walks through the door. His name's Rory and he's pretty cool.

"Hey Finn," He waves at me and his thick irish accent pulls my lips into an amused smile. It disappears though when I see the kid on his hip.

I point, confused, why is he bringing a kid into a bar? "Hey Rory, who's that?"

"Oh, uh, this is my son, Riley." He sets the kid down on the floor and crouches down next to him. "His mother had to work the afternoon shift today so I took him to the park. I'm just stopping by to get my check for the week."

Son? Rory never mentioned he had a kid, we never asked but I guess we never expected him too. He looks so young.

But then again I shouldn't be talking, neither should Puck actually. Wait, Puck isn't talking. Neither am I, and Rory is staring at me like I have three heads.

"Sorry, didn't know you had a son, how old is he?" I look down at Riley, he's got a curly head of dark hair and Rory's bright blue eyes.

"Just turned a year old, he was born after I moved here from Ireland. Met his mother in college." He shrugs and picks Riley up again.

"Dude, how old are you?"

"24, moved here just out of high school, went to college in Brooklyn, and married Sugar my Junior year before my visa expired." He smiles at Riley and turns back to me suddenly, "I love her though, don't think I just married her to stay here." Sugar? Sugar's his wife's name? huh.

"Of course man, I wasn't thinking that all." I put my hands up in surrender. Rory doesn't look 24, he looks younger than I am, I was questioning whether it was legal for him to be a bartender or not when I met him.

"Hey Finn, do you mind watching him for a second? I gotta get my check from Paul." He nudges his head toward the back of the bar, where the owner, Paul Clark's office is.

"Yeah sure, no problem." He hands Riley to me and I awkwardly hold him in my gigantic arms. He stares up at me, his eyes wide, and reaches up with a pale hand to grab onto my nose.

I catch his hand before he can pull and raise an eyebrow at him, then he laughs. His pink cheeks stretch into a wide smile and I can see he only has two teeth. He's adorable.

Before I know it Rory is back and lifting Riley out of my arms.

That's when Riley starts to cry and reaches out to me. Rory consoles him and he eventually settles down.

"I'd totally babysit him you know, if you ever need it." I offer.

"Thanks Finn, I'll definitely call you, I've been wanting to take Sugar out for some time now." He tucks the envelope from Paul into his jeans pocket and waves at me before heading out the door.

**_-Santana-_**

There's a Valentine's Day lull. Brit has finally settled down from her sugar high. I've finally stopped feeling the need to hurl everytime I see people giving each other lovey eyes.

I'm no longer avoiding Rachel and Quinn. I can't stand to be around them when it's Valentine's Day. Either they're so madly in love that they talk about how in love they are and how perfect and rainbows everything is, or they're single, which is worse because then all they do is cry and Quinn eats all my chocolate and then cries because she's going to get so fat that she'll spend EVERY Valentine's Day alone.

Funny thing is this year they're both madly in love AND getting fat.

Brit and I had a perfect Valentine's Day. She made me a playlist of all the songs that make her think of me and I got her a box of lucky charms full of only marshmellows and we just listened the the music and ate lucky charms. It was magically delicious.

"Tany?" She says quietly. I look at her, she's sitting crosslegged on the floor of her dorm.

"Mhm?"

"Do you ever wish I was a boy?" She tucks a bit of her blonde hair behind her ear.

My mouth falls open. "What?"

"It's just, you know, if I was a boy, none of the bad things that happened this year would have happened, and your grandmother would still be talking to you." Her eyes are sad, she blames herself for what happened with my Abuela.

"That was not your fault." I sit up on her bed and grab her hand. She looks down and I can see a tear slip down her cheek.

"Brittany, listen to me." She looks up, and quickly wipes her thumb under her eyes. "Brittany I would never want you to be someone that you're not. I love you just the way you are. Plus, boys have cooties." I stick my tongue out and wrinkle my nose in disgust and she laughs.

"I love you too, and your sweet lady kisses." She leans up and rubs her nose on mine. I raise an eyebrow at her.

She shrugs, "Eskimo kiss." Like it's common knowledge.

I just nod and pat her on the hand.

**_-Puck-_**

We don't really talk all that much. That's okay, just because she doesn't say anything doesn't mean I don't know what she's thinking. The girl is an open book to me.

I rubbing circles on her back while she types away on her laptop.

"What's this for again?" I ask her, trying to steal a glance at the screen.

"It's an email to Coach Sylvester, she heard wind of my pregnancy and I'm resigning from the cheerios before she can kick me off." She says as her hits the enter key dramatically to signal that her resignation has been sent. She leans forward to rest her face in her hands and I gently shut the laptop and set it on the desk beside my bed.

I glance at her tummy, "I guess you really can't train your swimmers." I say softly.

She smirks, "I told you."

"So is this your way of proving me wrong?" I say jokingly and her face falls. Shit.

"I'm so sorry this is happening to us." She whispers.

I gather her up in my arms, "No, Q, don't be. It takes two to put the bun in the oven. I don't blame you for any of this."

She nods against my shoulder and presses her lips to my neck.

Gently I lean away from her, and I can see that cloudy look in her eyes. "Quinn, this is how we got into this." I say, sighing.

"But Puck, I'm already pregnant, what's the worst that could happen?" She bites her lips and stares at my chest.

"This isn't you, it's the hormones. That baby wants you to get it on right now."

"The baby wants nothing but for me to puke my guts out." She complains.

"Now _that's_ sexy." I wiggle my eyebrows at her and climb on top of her, forcing her head back onto the pillows.

"Will you still think I'm sexy when I'm enormous?" She puffs out her lower lip in a pout.

"I will _always _think you're sexy." I notice that my voice has lowered and I can't take my eyes off of her lips, and her glowing cheeks. "Pregnant looks good on you." I say before I kiss her cheeks and then her nose. "My kisses look good on you too."

"Why aren't you this sweet in public? The other cheerios act like I'm dating the tooliest of all tools! They're afraid we're gonna end up on Jerry Springer!"

"I can't have people doubting my badassery, I need to live up to the Puckzilla name! They need to see me as the sex shark I always have been."

"But Puck!" She exclaims, her face a mask of concern.

"What?"

"If you stop having sex you'll die!" She shoves me upward so I fall off the bed and land on my back on the floor. She then pounces on top of me and starts trying to tear my shirt off. I still her wrists and pull her close to my face.

I press my lips softly to hers, deepening the kiss and eliciting a slow moan from her. I break the kiss and place another below her ear. "Save me." I whisper and she slides her hands up my chest.

**_-Rachel-_**

Finn's band has been practicing for a couple weeks and he refuses to let me hear them until his opening night at the end of the month. So I've decided that enough is enough, I want to hear them and he's not going to keep hiding from me. I smile proudly as I walk down the street toward the bar on the corner a couple block's from Kurt's apartment. I know he's there, he just texted me to tell me he was out of class and on his way there. He expects me to wait until he's done to meet him at Sardi's for dinner with my fathers. He's in for a surprise.

The bar is beneath an apartment building, with stairs that descend from the sidewalk to two double doors with a neon sign that says 'Underground'. So, clever.

My phone goes off and I fumble around in my purse in search of it.

**you and finn still comin to dinner 2nite?- Daddy**

I approach the stairs and respond

_of course, see you at six? -Rachel*_

**_-Finn-_**

I heard the scream over the sound of our song. Maybe my ears are just tuned in to the sound of Rachel's voice.

I don't even know why she's here but I'm out from behind my drums before anyone else looks up.

I find her at the bottom of the stairs outside the front door. There aren't that many steps, seven or eight maybe. But they're stone, and still slippery in March.

Why didn't Paul put out the damn salt for the ice?

"Rach? Baby are you okay? Are you hurt?" I ask her frantically checking her for damage.

"I think my ankle, but-" Then she gasps and lets out a strangled cry. Her hands fly to her stomach and our eyes flick to the same spot.

There's blood on the ground.

**dun dun dun. cliffhanger!**

**I'm not even going to say a whole lot, I don't want to give ANYTHING away. *grins***

**read, review & repeat :)**

**sincerely your mischievious author **


	24. Hear You Me

**This chapter made me really, really sad. That's all I can say, my feelings are too upset to comment. Try to enjoy, or at least bask in the sadness.**

_**-Finn-**_

I really hate hospitals.

Rachel is cutting off the circulation on my hand, her knuckles are white.

We're staring intensely into each others eyes, waiting for the doctor to wheel in that ultra-whatever machine.

I can hear the wheels creaking down the hall. Rachel's Papa is pacing the floor on the other side of Rachel's bed. Her Daddy is resting in his wheelchair at Rachel's feet, rubbing one of them and trying to keep everyone calm.

"Okay, Ms. Berry, I'd just like for you to prepare yourself okay? Do you understand?"

Rachel nods her head furiously, but she never takes her eyes off of mine.

"okay, here we go." He gently pulls up Rachel's sweater, revealing her adorable, inflated stomach. A million thoughts are racing through my head but I can't grab onto anything long enough to understand completely what's going on.

I close my eyes, Rachel's grip gets tighter. I can hear the sound of the gel squirting onto Rachel's stomach, and the doctor moving around.

"We got a heartbeat." He says, relieved. I open my eyes, but Rachel still looks terrified. That's right, he got _a_ heartbeat, we're waiting for two.

"I'm so sorry." The doctor just stares at the screen, not daring to look at either of us.

I can feel all the strength leaving my body at once. My hand falls out of Rachel's and leans on the hospital bed for support.

Leroy's hands freeze on Rachel's feet, his mouth falls open but nothing comes out. Hiram collapses into one of the hospital chairs, his forehead creased and his eyes tightly closed.

Rachel lets out a stifled cry and clasps her hand over her mouth.

"I can tell you the sex of the fighter." The doctor turns off the equipment and pages a nurse.

I slowly nod.

"It's a girl."

**_-Rachel-_**

The fighter.

After the doctor leaves, after they tell us what happens next. Finn and I just stare at my stomach. Neither of us talking, or moving, barely even breathing.

I glance up at his face for a second and I can see the tears rolling over his cheeks.

The one we lost was a boy. The one _I _lost, because I was stupid and I didn't wait at the apartment like I'd told Finn I would. This is my fault.

I take in one breath and try to let it out slowly and evenly. But it comes out in a strangled gasp and all of a sudden I'm full out sobbing.

Finn looks up, worried at my sudden outburst and moves his chair closer to cradle my head against his chest. "shhhh." He whispers.

"No, Finn. This. Is. My. Fault." I manage.

"Stop it."

I try to apologize, but my body is too exhausted to form words. All I can think is that I killed his son. How is he ever going to forgive me?

How could he ever love me after this?

"Stop it, Rachel, don't you dare blame yourself okay? I love you, and we'll, we'll get through this." He sounds wounded.

I did that to him.

_**-Sam-**_

Finn won't even say anything. We let Rachel's dads explain to us what happened.

Finn just sits there, squeezing Rachel's hand, staring at her face and trembling.

Rachel's asleep. But her face is still tear-stained.

My throat closed up when Leroy said that one of them made it.

The easier way of saying that one of them didn't.

_**-Rachel-**_

I can't look at them.

So I'm just listening.

Listening to my daddy explain the situation with my eyes closed.

They think I'm sleeping.

But I just can't look at them knowing what I did.

Finn keeps kissing my knuckles, and I can feel him looking at me.

Just waiting for me to wake up.

So this is our life now.

He's just going to keep waiting for me wake up.

I'm going to keep waiting for him to leave me.

**_-Finn-_**

This can't be happening.

This can't be happening.

I've never cried so much in my life.

Our friends barely said a word.

Puck stared at the floor.

Quinn cried quietly into his shoulder.

Sam kept swallowing and clearing his throat.

Kurt collapsed into a chair in the corner and sobbed to Blaine over the phone.

Santana left as soon as she understood what happened.

I can't help but feel guilty.

My stupid band in our stupid bar.

Dumbass Paul. I TOLD him to salt the damn steps.

This is HIS fault.

God, I gotta stop this.

My mom would yell at me for blaming people.

This is no one's fault.

This can't be happening.

**_-Santana-_**

I couldn't be there.

I couldn't watch her wake up, and remember, and crumble.

I wouldn't be able to keep it together.

So now I'm in the back of this taxi, staring straight ahead.

Neon lights to my left grab my attention.

"Pull over." I command the taxi driver.

_**-Finn-**_

The doctor came back with a bunch of numbers written down.

He said they were for "professionals" who could help us through this rough time.

He also said that it's helpful to stay on the positive side of things.

Because our little girl _did_ make it.

Our little girl, a little Rachel.

The thought does seem to help. A little.

I thank him and take the numbers.

Rachel has been asleep for a few hours now.

I guess that's normal, she's "emotionally drained".

I don't know how she's doing it.

Everytime I try to fall asleep, I jerk awake again, terrified that she woke up alone.

**_-Rachel-_**

I can hear Finn talking to the doctor.

But it sounds like I'm underwater. Drowning in my sleep.

My eyes refuse to open, and I'm so scared of what I'm going to see when I finally look at him.

The talking stops for a second, but then starts back up again.

But now he's not talking to the doctor. He's talking to me.

"This is going to be okay, I promise. We need to get through this, because, we still have a little girl Rachel, and we need to be brave for her."

"Finn?" That sounds like my daddy. I can hear the clicks of his wheelchair.

Finn doesn't respond, but my daddy moves closer.

"I want you to know that Hiram and I are here for you, and Rachel, anything you need." His voice is tight. "Anything to make our princess okay again."

I don't want to be okay. I don't deserve to be okay. My baby deserves to be okay. I just want it to be yesterday.

"She doesn't deserve this." Finn says quietly.

"Neither do you, Finn. It's a terrible thing, but if there's anyone I trust to help my baby deal with this, it's you. But it's okay for you to feel upset too, she needs to support you just as much as you need to support her, don't forget that."

Finn doesn't deserve this. No one deserves this feeling.

**Sad! :( But mini Rachel survived! She's a fighter! Keep an eye out for the next chapter "Keep Holding on". I'll be posting a link on my tumblr when I post it on here. Should be done sometime next week I hope! It will cover all of April. Might be a long one, also you'll see what happened to Santana after she left the hospital. :) **

**Read, Review & Repeat! **

**Sincerely, moi.**


	25. Keep Holding On

**Okay everyone, this chapter is most definitely rated M. There's a little lemon at the end so be ready for that! :) enjoy**

_**-Rachel-**_

His band is doing really well. They got picked up by a label earlier this month. I guess there's even been talk of a tour in the works.

I can't help but feel a little upset. I'm proud of him and I'm happy that this is all happening for him.

But I need him here. Not on the road. It's selfish but at this point I don't care.

I just need him to be here with me.

His arm tightens around my shoulders as he watches the football game play out before us on our modest sized Tv.

He has a game, against the blue team on the screen, next weekend and Coach Bieste wants him be ready for it.

So he's scribbling statistics and making a list of their strongest players on the notebook in his lap with his other hand.

He looks so focused. His passion for the things he loves surprises me sometimes.

The team fumbles the ball and his eyes light up. He continues to scribble furiously, he doesn't notice how intently I'm gazing at him.

I've got a book propped up on my baby bump, opened up to act III. I'm supposed to read the rest of this act for English class tomorrow.

It's Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and I need to decide if it's sexist or time period-appropriate.

I suppose it's both, because that time period was very sexist.

For Elizabethan Times, the play is an innocent romantic comedy. But for modern day society, it's a misogynistic atrocity. According to my professor.

Finn says something to me, but I'm so engrossed in my thoughts that I can't quite make it out.

"Hmm?" I mumble dreamily.

"I said, you look tired. Do you want to go to bed? I can ask Puck to watch the rest of the game." He's so sweet, not wanting me to go to bed alone.

"No, I'm okay. I need to read the rest of this for class anyway." I turn to the book and read the first sentence before he speaks again.

"Rach, you need to sleep. For the babies." His jaw clenches at him mistake. "Ahem, I mean, I didn't, I, god." He stammers and lets his face fall into his hands. Breaking the connection between his arm and my shoulders.

I take his hand. "Hey, it's okay." I bring his hand to my face and softly kiss the tips of his fingers.

"I'm sorry." He whispers. His face full of pain and guilt. He has no reason to be sorry.

I wrap my arms around his neck and lean back against the couch, bring him down with me. His head rests against my chest and his arms fall around my waist.

I run my fingers slowly through his hair, calming him. "I love you." I whisper before I kiss his forehead.

"I love you too." His voice cracks. I can feel a few of his tears on my neck. I've never seen him this broken up.

He wasn't this upset when he thought Lucy was pregnant. I've never seen him cry like this. It's heartbreaking.

We lay there for what feels like hours. But the TV returns to the game after a commercial break and We slowly sit back up.

Finn goes back to scribbling on his notebook and I dutifully finish act III.

Like he never said anything.

But I feel this emptiness gnawing at my heart. This guilt pounding in my head.

So I focus on Finn's arm back around my shoulders, and the feeling of his fingers caressing the skin on my collarbone

Those feelings are smothered for the time being.

**_-Finn-_**

The loud thumping of the bass as it vibrates my chest. The tingles that run through my fingers as I run through the beat of this song. It replaces the numbness that follows whenever I think of what happened. It helps me feel a little more alive.

It's the only thing that helps when I'm away from Rachel. I feel like when I can't see her, can't feel her, she doesn't exist. Like she disappears, and then there's a gaping hole in my heart that only the music I make can fill.

The song ends, but I keep playing. Trying to prolong the relief that's washing over me like a wave.

"Finn, Finn? FINN!" Puck shouts and my hands still. But I keep staring at the drumsticks in front of me.

"You okay, man?" He asks and I force myself to look at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lie through my teeth.

"Stop it Finn. Don't lie to us, we know you." Sam shakes his head and looks at me pleadingly.

"I'm sorry, I just, I'm trying to distract myself." I explain.

"Don't." Blaine shrugs. "Don't ignore the situation Finn, it'll only make things worse."

Anger boils up inside of me. "Who are any of you to tell me how to handle this situation? Do ANY of you know what I'm going through? NO!"

"Calm down Finn, we're just trying to help. We don't want to see you lose yourself because of this." Mike walks over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

I shrug him off. "Why? Because I've lost enough already?" I toss the drumsticks across the stage. They land with a clatter and roll off onto the floor.

"Finn, you need to be strong through this. Not just for yourself, but for Rachel and for your daughter. They need you." Rory walks from behind the bar and climbs onto the stage.

"What about what _I _need? I _need _this feeling to go away. I can't spend another hour feeling so damn guilty. I can barely look at Rachel without crying like a damn baby and she's being _so _strong about this! She's been comforting _me _this whole time! I'm so fucked up that I can't be there for her and it's driving me insane!"

"You'll be there for her by _being _there. You know Rachel, we all do, she just needs you to hold her and be with her. She'll talk about her feelings when she's ready." Sam reasons.

I hear the front door open and Rory's wife Sugar strolls in with Riley in tow. "Hey baby, our baby wanted to stop by." She giggles and lifts Riley to present him to Rory.

"Hello Luvs." He says before kissing Sugar's cheek and ruffling Riley's hair.

Riley lets out a train of giggles and reaches his chubby hands out to grasp Rory's face.

"Is that Finn?" Sugar mutters, staring right at me.

"Oh, yeah, Finn?" He motions for me to walk over there.

I walk away from the set and hop off the stage, shoving my hands in my pockets and joining them.

Riley's eyes go wide when he sees me and he immediately reaches out for me, making unrecognizable noises.

"See, told you Riley loves him." Rory points out with a smile.

"I'm so sorry for your loss Finn." Sugar says slowly.

I just nod and Rory sets Riley in my arms. I smile down at him. Wondering if someday he and my daughter will be friends.

I bet, he'd watch out for her, making sure no one messes with her.

However, if she's anything like her mother, she won't need a bodyguard. But it'd be nice to have one anyway.

In that very moment, daydreaming about my daughter and seeing Riley's innocent, smiling face.

I start to believe that everything's going to be okay.

**_-Santana-_**

"Santana?" Rachel knocks on the door to my dorm. At first I thought it was my new roommate, and I was gonna let her sit out there, because she's so fucking annoying.

"Hold on." I manage to speak through my raging hangover and stumble over to the door.

I pull it open and smile at her. "Hey honey, how have you been?"

"Oh god Santana, how late were you out last night? You smell homeless."

My smile disappears. "Nice to see you too."

"I'm sorry, I would've stopped by earlier this week, well, actually I did. Several times in fact, but you were never here." She walks past me and into the room.

"Yeah well, the new roommate it a little hard to take. She's not really in favor of my lifestyle."

"How do you know?"

"Well for starters, she's best friends with Penelope Decker." I say as Rachel winces at the name.

"And also, she left me this post it this morning." I take the little yellow note off my nightstand and hold it out for her.

She reads aloud. "I've signed you up to meet with my pastor, he's willing to talk to you about your sinful disease and offer any counseling you might need to help cleanse your tarnished soul. You can thank me later. love, Tiffany Johannson," She looks up at me with a disbelieving look.

"No, seriously, I woke up to that. I didn't think people were actually like that outside of movies. 'You can thank me later!' What is that?"

"Wow, she apparently didn't skip out of her frosted ignorance flakes this morning. The sad thing is, she was probably seriously trying to help." Rachel lets the post it fall from her fingers and float softly down to the carpet.

"I'm switching roommates ASAP." I tell her. "I've already got a meeting scheduled with the RA."

"Good, and now for the reason I stopped by, Brit is worried about you."

"About me? We're all worried about you!" I flop down onto my bed.

"She said she hasn't seen you all week, she thinks you're mad at her."

"Mad at her? I've just been busy." I cross my arms.

"Busy? Since when are you too busy for Brittany, or for me? Quinn misses you too."

"Well stop, I'm fine and I'll try to hang out with you guys more, okay?" Jesus, I'd forgotten how crazy Berry was. Shit, I don't mean that.

"Santana you've been doing a lot of partying lately and-" I hold my hand up to stop her.

"I like my alcohol, sure. But it's not like I'm out of control. I party, what the fuck's wrong with that?" I notice she flinches when my voice rises.

"I'm just looking out for you, I'm sorry, just be careful." Careful?

"If anyone should be more careful it's you!" shitfuckshit. I cannot believe I just said that.

Her face twists up and her eyes brim with tears. "I know okay? I know that what happened was my fault!"

"No, Rach, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" She stand up abruptly.

"Just forget it. Take care of yourself okay? I don't want you getting hurt too." and with that she walks out.

All she wanted to do was make sure I was okay.

I fall onto my knees on the floor and shove my arm under the bed, frantically searching. I sigh a breath of relief when My fingers wrap around the glass neck of Jack Daniels I'd hidden there.

**_-Finn-_**

Rachel bursts through the door of our apartment with tears streaming down her face. She falls down onto the couch, her body wracked with sobs.

"Shit Rachel what happened?" I sit down next to her and wrap her up in my arms.

"I. Went. To. See. San. and I, she, I." She tries to talk but her words just fade into gasps for air.

"Shhhh, it's okay, did she say something?" She nods her head furiously.

"What'd she say?"

"I don't, think she meant to. But she, I, it's all my fault!" Realization hit me like a ton of bricks. She'd gotten into an arguement with Santana, I'd warned her about confronting Santana about her recent partying binge. Santana can get so defensive, she must have said something about the baby.

"Shhhh, baby, none of this is your fault. She didn't mean it, she loves you. You know that." I push the hair out of her face and swipe a thumb under her eyes to catch the tears.

She just nods again, her sobs fading into hiccups. She walks into the bathroom and I get up to get her a glass of water.

She's back on the couch when I come back with the water. Her face is clean, like she'd never been crying. I hand her the water and she daintily sips at it.

I take her hand in mine and rub her fingers while she calms down.

Then she's looking at me with darkened eyes. She looks down at my bare chest, apparently just now noticing that I'd been lounging around in just basketball shorts.

She licks her lips quickly and presses a hand over my heart.

We haven't been, intimate, since we lost the baby. So it's been a few weeks. We both needed time, and by the look her eyes I can tell what she wants.

I cover her hand with mine and lean in to capture her lips in a searing kiss. She moans into my mouth and runs her other hand through my hair, dragging her nails across my scalp.

I put my hands on her hips and pull her into my lap, running them over the curve of her ass and gently squeezing.

"I missed you." She whispers against my lips and then moves her mouth down to nip hungrily at my neck.

**_-Rachel-_**

He carefully slides his hands underneath my sweater, gently rubbing his thumbs across my ribcage, making me shiver.

I grasp the hem and pull it effortlessly over my head. His eyes fall onto my swollen stomach and I can feel a blush creeping over my cheeks.

He smiles lovingly and reaches behind my back to unclasp my bra, letting it fall off my shoulders and onto the floor.

"You're so beautiful." He says to me, ghosting his lips over the skin of my breasts, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.

He wraps his arms around me and stands, carefully setting me on the floor and leads me to our bedroom.

I push him down onto the bed and climb next to him, hooking my thumbs in his shorts and boxers and pulling them off of him in one swift motion.

I let my fingers dance over his stomach and twirl around his happy trail before reaching his manhood.

Grinning he pulls me on top of him and tugs my lace panties off. He lines himself up with my entrance and grasps my hips.

"I love you." He whispers and slowly pushes himself into me before I can respond.

We both groan loudly at the feel of him filling me completely. I've missed this so much.

_**-Finn-**_

She feels amazing, she always feels amazing. But right now, it feels extra special.

We're healing each other, holding onto each other for dear life. I don't ever want to break this connection.

She takes control, riding me and planting her hands on my chest for support. We never break eye contact.

In her eyes I can feel everything she's feeling. The pain, the guilt that mirrors my own.

Suddenly she throws her head back and lets out the sexiest noise I've ever heard. I can feel her clenching around me and I reach between us rub circles on the small bundle of nerves nestled there.

Her walls flutter around me and my name has never sounded so good on her lips. She leans down and kisses me, bringing me over the edge and I spill inside her.

I gently help her off of me and she curls into my side. Our is breathing labored and she takes my face in her hands and mutters one word.

"Perfect."

**Well, that was my first ever attempt at writing that. So please be gentle ^_^ **

**there are two chapters left. One and then the epilogue :)**

**I'm gonna give you guys a mission. if you can get me between 150-160 reviews, I'll do a sequel. :D**

**read, review & repeat!**

**sincerely your dedicated author**


	26. Little Prayer

**Hello everybody! Review Review Review! **

***July***

**_-Quinn-_ **

He's still here when I wake up. It's been weird getting used to that.

Ever since school got out, he took me to meet his mom in Brooklyn. We've been staying with her.

It's been great, aside from the kosher, no meat thing. She loves me, and she's like the mom I wish I had.

I miss everyone. But I know I'll see them when school gets back in. So I'm enjoying this time while I've got it.

I'm curled up next to his chest, listening to his heartbeat. It's slow and even, his breaths are heavy, he's still asleep.

I carefully slip my hand under his shirt and run my fingers up his chest, placing my palm over his heart, feeling it beat against my skin.

The movement makes him stir, and I can feel his muscles tensing as he wakes up.

"Morning Q." He yawns.

"Good Morning." I purr, raising an eyebrow and kissing him right above his collar bone.

The kissing gets more desperate, passionate and deep. Until I try to pull him on top of me and he tenses up and pulls back, sitting up on the bed.

"What?" I ask him, confused. "Morning breath?" I raise a hand to my mouth and check it.

He shakes his head. "I, uh, I just, I don't." He stammers.

My face falls, and my hands fiddle with the hem of my tank top. "I knew it." I whisper.

"Knew what?"

"I told you, you wouldn't still be attracted to me." My voice is low and shaky. I can feel tears stinging my eyes. This was exactly what I was afraid of. I'm so pregnant and fat and he probably thinks I'm hideous and he's going to see some gorgeous, _skinny_ girl and leave me to fend for myself. What if even after I have the baby, my body never goes back to the way it was. What if it's not even close!

"No, baby, no, that's not what it is!" He tries to reach for my hand but I pull it to my chest.

"Don't, I'm tired okay?" I hold the tears in, trapping them in my throat and keep my eyes on my knees.

"Quinn, I," He starts. But I shake my head. "I'll just, run to the store then. Do you want anything?"

I don't respond.

He just leaves.

_**-Rachel-** _

The paint roller makes a sticky sound as I cover up the last strip of white in our baby's nursery. I drop the paint roller onto the tarp on the floor and admire my work.

All four walls have been painted lilac purple. I finally convinced Finn to let me decorate the nursery with a butterfly theme.

It's going to have pink gingham curtains with little wooden picket fences on the windowsills.

All the furniture is white and we bought a butterfly mobile to hang over the crib. All the accents have flowers or butterflies on them and the crib bedding is also purple with butterflies.

I'm so excited for Finn to see it when it's done. I'm spending the entire day today on it. It's Finn's shift at the bar and he has a meeting with the guys and their manager tonight so he won't be home til later.

Everything is piled up in the living room and just need to be pushed into the room and arranged.

Everything except the crib.

Finn helped me assemble the changing table but when we were done I could tell I could have done it myself.

But I can't lug all the furniture and clothes and what not into the room by myself so I called Kurt and Blaine to come and help me.

They should be over in an hour or so, I could get a head start on putting the crib together.

I grab the box cutter from Finn's toolbox and cut open the box. The directions are lying on top of a neatly piled heap of wooden parts and metal joints.

Unfolding them in my hands, my mouth drops open in horror.

The directions are in german. GERMAN! My cousin Penny sent me the crib as a gift, but she's certainly NOT German!

I flip the paper over, searching for an English version, but there's none to be found.

I can do this, maybe the pieces will be obvious. I reach into the box and pull out what appears to be a white, wooden, rotating torture device.

I groan and drop the piece back into the box.

I glance at the front of the box, it features a bright and sunny picture of what the crib will look like put together. It's so adorable, with no indication that it was German manufactured. I peak at the directions in an attempt to decipher something that will be helpful.

What the FUCK is a Stabilisierenstab?

Frustrated, I toss the directions across the room and cry out some choice words.

"Rach?" Kurt's wary voice rings out from the living room. He and Blaine must be here.

"In the nursery!" I sob.

They hover in the doorway and look at me sadly. "Oh, Rach." Blaine crouches down in front of my and swipes his thumbs under my eyes to wipe away the escaped tears.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asks, walking around the room and observing my work.

"The directions to the crib." I tell him.

Kurt picks them up off of the floor and holds them close to his face. "German?"

I nod furiously. "They're GERMAN!"

"It's okay," Kurt soothed.

"HOW? Do you know German?" I exclaim.

"No." He responds and I drop my head in her hands. "But Blaine does." He says excitedly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I took it last year, I mean I'm not fluent, but I can probably pick out some words." He takes the directions from Kurt and scans them.

"Think you can translate any of it?" Kurt reads over his shoulder.

"Shouldn't be too hard. This says you need a screwdriver, does Finn have one?"

"Yeah, I'll be right back." I go back to Finn's toolbox. Silently thanking Blaine's German Professor.

**_-Santana-_**

I wake up in Kurt's apartment. Hungover, again. I wake up like this a few times a week, ever since I left the hospital.

That was the straw that broke the camel's -ughhhh migraine- whatever.

After everything that happened this year, I just couldn't deal with it anymore, not without a little help.

These bad things keep happening to the people I care about and it's just not fucking fair.

So the parties, and the alcohol, they helped me escape. Now I feel like I've been sucked into another life.

I dark, twisted spiral of hazy shards that, if pieced together right, form some semblance of a life.

My throat feels dry and cracked, my eyes are unfocused and I can barely sit up without feeling like I'm gonna throw up.

I blindly flail my arm around my nightstand searching for my cell phone. I finally find it and hold it up to my face.

Seven missed calls. Brittany, Rachel, Brittany, Brittany, Daddy, Rachel and Brittany. Seven voicemails.

I dial my voicemail and hold the phone up to my ear.

"San? It's Brit. Where are you? We were supposed to give Lord Tubbington a bath tonight. Call me."

"Santana Lopez, you answer your phone this very second! Santana? Where are you!" Oh, Rachel.

"Tany? I'm getting worried, please answer your phone. Please?"

"Santana, are you mad at me? Is that what's wrong? Whatever I did, I probably I didn't mean to. I'm sorry!"

"Santana, your mother and I recieved a concerned phone call from your girlfriend this evening. Your not picking up is not reassuring. Call us back."

"Can you explain to me why I have a sobbing Brittany in my lap right now? My baby hormones are not liking this Santana. I need to start the nursery! But I can't with her attached to me like this! Whatever you did, FIX IT!"

The last voicemail was Brit again, she was clearly trying to say something, but what ever it was was muffled by her crying. The only thing I could understand was a soft "I love you." at the end. My heart sank and I almost forgot about my raging migrane.

I dial Brit's number back. "TANY! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I MISSED YOU! ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU HURT? WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME?" Her voice shouts a mile a minute and I clutch my forehead. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

"Shhh, Brits, I'm fine." She goes silent.

"You're fine? You're FINE! If you're fine why didn't you answer any of my calls? I was so worried!"

"Brit I'm sorry, I was out late last night and I didn't even notice you called until this morning." I try to explain to her.

She sighs heavily. "I may not be the smartest crayon in the tools shed. But I'm not a child. You were out drinking, with people that you barely even know. Do you know what could have happened? You need to stop this Santana."

"How do you know what I need! You don't know anything!"

She gasps. "You don't mean that."

"God Brittany, this, partying, it makes me feel good. It helps me escape from my life."

"Why do you need to escape from your life?"

"Cuz it sucks! I have people stare at me like I'm a fucking pariah. I have a grandmother who won't speak to me." She interrupts me.

"You have me. You have friends who love you. Your parents love you. You have so many people who love and care about you. Isn't that enough?"

"Sometimes, it just isn't Brit. Why do you have to be so naive. Love isn't everything."

But she doesn't have time to respond. My phone beeps once and then dies. I toss it angrily onto the floor. Perfect fucking timing

_**-Finn-**_

"What's the club called?" Sam asks Mike, who is now in 'manager mode'.

"It's called Adrenaline. The guy who owns it, he inherited a shit-ton of money from his grandfather or something, his name's Jesse St. James. He heard you guys at the bar one night and he wants the band to be the club's entertainment. They open next year but he wants to finalize everything now."

We all nod, mulling it over. Mike called Puck earlier, and he's already in. Playing at the bar has been great practice, but it's not exactly getting us anywhere. Sure, we've gained a moderate fanbase in New York. But it's rumored that this club is gonna be huge. If we can play there, we could attract a lot of attention. But on the other hand, Paul has been really good to us. It would hurt him if we ditched him and Rory for some rich guy's paradise.

"What do you guys think?" I ask Sam and Blaine.

"I think it's an amazing opportunity." Blaine says.

"Yeah, but Paul," Sam starts but Blaine cuts in.

"Has been great, but we need to expand our horizons, you know? If this St. James guy wants us, we should go for it."

"I guess." Sam shrugs. He looks at me and I give him a nod, saying I have the same concerns.

"So it's settled then? You guys are in?" Mike asks us and we nod. "Okay, I'll call St. James and set up a meeting." He pulls his phone out and walks off the stage and out into the alleyway to talk.

He's taking this manager thing really seriously. He's really good at it too. He keeps us on schedule and in check. It's great to have some structure.

"You're leaving?" Rory comes out of the back office and asks us, sadly.

"You heard?" Sam asks.

Rory nods. "I won't hold it against you, as long as you don't disappear forever."

"Of course, we'll still be friends Rory." Blaine assures him and the rest of us nod and agree.

"You still wanna take Riley for the day?" Rory asks me.

"Yeah, I've been pretty pumped about it. Rachel hasn't met him yet and she wants to see what it's like taking care of a kid. You know, practice."

Rory nods, "Sugar's dropping him off any minute and he's yours. I'm taking her out to that place Rachel always talks about."

"Sardi's? Oh Sugar'll love it." Blaine says enthusiastically.

The bell on the door chimes and Sugar walks in carrying Riley. She's got a fancy red dress on and she looks beautiful.

Rory walks swiftly over to her and kisses her cheek. "Hello Luv, you ready?"

Sugar nods and carries Riley over to me. "You sure you can handle him?"

"Oh yeah, it's no problem." I take him in my arms and smile widely at him.

"Okay well you have Rory's number if there's any trouble, and the hospital." She pulls a folded up piece of paper out of her purse and hands it to me. "Here are all the emergency numbers. There's his pediatrician's number and my parent's home and cell, and my sister's home phone and if you need to you can call the restaurant. He's allergic to dogs and he goes to bed at 7:30. I bathed him before we came so you're set on that. OH! and-" Rory grabs her hand and pulls her out the door.

"I think he'll be okay." He assures her and nods at me.

They leave and I look at Riley, who's been strangely quiet.

He's fast asleep, drool running over his chin. This is gonna be a piece of cake.

**_-Kurt-_**

"We're almost done!" Rachel exclaims as we hang up the last curtain. Blaine left after we finished the crib to attend the meeting with the band, so it's been me and Rachel lugging in the dresser, changing table and all the clothes and toys into the nursery. The crib turned out perfect, Blaine knew enough German for Rachel and I to put it together and the paint was dry by the time it was done. So we just pushed it into place against the far wall and tucked in all the pretty bedding and viola!

Then we laid down the rug and positioned the dresser and changing table. After that Rachel folded all the clothes and put them away while I hung up the pictures of flowers and butterflies in dainty white frames. All the toys fit neatly into a pink toy chest that Rachel's fathers made and painted for her.

The curtains were last. I smoothed my hand over the soft pink gingham and then we stood in the doorway to admire our work.

"It's lovely." Rachel sighs.

"Gorgeous, we do amazing work Ms. Berry." I hold my hand out and she high fives it.

"I hope Finn likes it." She clasps her hands together in excitement.

"Oh he will, because he loves everything that you love. You've got that boy whipped like chocolate mousse."

She giggles and says nothing because she knows it's true.

"Now if only you could persuade him to throw away what's left of his awful wardrobe." He apparently hid away from of his clothes just in case I ever performed a fashion overhaul on him, which I did. Sneaky bastard.

Rachel playfully slaps me on the arm and shuts the door to the nursery. "I was thinking, when Finn and I name her that we could hang a wooden letter on the front of the door. That'd be cute, right?"

"Oh yeah, I could see that. What _are _you naming her?" I ask her, curious.

"I don't know, I was thinking Fanny, or Evita. But Finn hates those names. He just wants to wing it, you know? Wait until we see her and then we'll just 'know' or something."

"I think that's sweet, and Fanny is a terrible name for your daughter. Think of the ridicule!" I cringe at the possible nicknames.

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Whatever, we'll agree on something and it'll be perfect."

"I'm sure you will." I wrap my arm around her and squeeze supportively. I wonder how hard it would be to convince Finn to name her Barbra?

**_-Quinn-_**

"Oh please, Quinn, Puck could never stop being attracted to you!" Rachel exclaims over the phone.

"You didn't see his face Rach! He was _disgusted_!"

"I'm sure that's not what it was, I don't think you have to worry. Just talk to him!" She says.

"Well, I kind of tried, but I was so upset, I made him leave." I sigh.

"Try again, and let him explain. He could surprise you, he loves you."

"Okay, I will, thank you." We say our goodbyes and I hear the front door open. Puck's footsteps carry down the hall and he appears in the doorway.

"Hi." He says softly.

I slip over to him and smile it a little. "Where'd you sleep last night?" I say softly.

"on the couch." He shrugs. Like it's no big deal, he walks over to the bed and I slowly join him.

"I'm sorry I got upset yesterday." I tell him meekly.

"Don't be."

"I just, tell me why you're not, _sexually, _attracted to me anymore." I say, exasperated.

Puck's eyes widen and he throws his hands up in front of him. "That's _not _the problem. Quinn, I think you're beautiful, especially right now. I always think you're beautiful and I _am, _uhem, sexually attracted to you, I just."

"What?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me? How could you hurt me by giving me what I want!" I lean closer to him and press my hands against his chest. "I just want to be close to you. Let me, please?"

"I want that just as much as you do, if not _more_. But I'm just scared, that I'll, hurt you or the," He points at my stomach, "our baby, I don't want anything to happen, you know, like..." He trails off. But I know what he's trying to say.

"Rachel? Babe, that was a terrible accident. Something none of us saw coming. But, I trust you. I know you would never hurt me, or, or us." I pull my hand off of his chest and rest it on my tummy. "If I thought you would hurt us, I wouldn't ask you to do this."

"You sure?" He leans closer to me. Surrounding me with the scent of him. Warm and musky. I close my eyes and sigh.

"Yes. Absolutely." He fills the gap between us and captures my lips in his. Finally closing the distance I've felt between us for days.

His breath tickles my neck and I let out a giggle.

"I love you." He whispers.

**_-Finn-_**

I drag myself through the front door of our apartment, carrying Riley in carseat that Rory provided for me. It's dead silent so Kurt must have left already. Which means the nursery must be finished. Anxiousness runs through me. "Rach?" I call out and I hear her soft padded footsteps come out of our bedroom and into the living room.

"He's so cute!" She exclaims, looking down at Riley. Then she lifts her eyes to me, "Hey baby, how was your day?" She asks, with a knowing smile on her face.

"Just show me our daughter's room." I say with a grin. I walk over and set the carseat in front of the couch.

She jumps a little in excitement and scurries over to grab my hand and pulls me toward the door to the nursery.

"Are you ready?" She asks me.

I nod. "Totally."

"Close your eyes." She says, with a hand on the doorknob.

"Rach!" I whine.

"Finn." She scolds. "Come on, please?"

I relent, (a new word Rach taught me) and close my eyes.

I hear her open the door with a creak and lead me inside.

I can feel a soft rug on my feet as she takes me to the middle of the room. "Open." She whispers.

My eyes snap open and I let out a gasp at the room. It's adorable.

The crib has a, a, "Rachel what's that called?" I point at it.

"A canopy." She tells me.

It has a pink canopy hanging over it, with the mobile of butterflies just underneath.

The entire room is light and soft and glowing. Very girly, but that's perfect. I want our daughter to stay as feminine and innocent as this room forever.

"She's never allowed to leave this room." I tell Rachel. She laughs.

"Awww, protective Daddy." She wraps her arms around my waist and nuzzles into my chest.

"It's perfect, I love it. You and Kurt did an amazing job babe."

"Thank you." She sighs.

We stay there, her wrapped up in my arms. Just admiring the room, until we hear Riley gurgling and making baby noises from the living room.

We leave the nursery and Rachel goes over to the carseat, unsnapping the straps and carefully lifting him out of it. "You're so cute." She murmurs and raspberries his belly. Making him laugh and giggle. If taking care of someone else's baby is this much fun, I can't wait for _our _baby.

**_-Santana-_**

I haven't called Brit back.

After my phone died, I realized what I'd said to her.

I've never, ever, spoken to her like that.

I'm really afraid of what she's going to say to me.

There's a knock at Kurt's door. Kurt took Blaine to some off-broadway show tonight, leaving me alone.

It was nice of him to let me stay here this summer, but the kid is never home.

"Tany, it's me." Brit's voice chimes.

I jump to my feet and answer the door.

"Why'd you hang up on me?" She asks, her voice desperate.

"I didn't! My phone died." I explain to her.

"Then did you charge it?"

"Yeah."

"And you haven't called me back." She says, deadpan.

"I'm sorry, I was afraid you won't forgive me."

"Will you stop drinking San?" She asks me.

I ponder this. Will I? _Can _I? I have to be honest.

"No." I sigh.

"Then," She sniffles and wipes tears out of her eyes. "Then, I can't forgive you."

My heart stops. Like, I think it literally stopped. "But, I, I mean, I can try, I just." I stumble.

"No, Santana. It's me, or the parties. You can't treat me like this. I'm better than that and you know it. I'm sorry." She stopped wiping away her tears, letting them fall as they may. Down over her cheeks, running with her mascara.

"I'm sorry too." Is all I can say. All I can manage to grab ahold of and spit out. I'm so stupid. I should have promised to stop. Should have convinced her that I'd stop for her.

But I can't promise that I won't fall off the wagon. And she's right, she _is _better than that. She deserves better than to wonder where I am and what I'm doing.

Until I can promise that I can chose her, until that's the truth, I can't hold onto her.

She just nods and leans in to kiss me on the cheek.

Then she walks away.

I let her leave.

**Wow, longest chapter ever I think. This is the last one before the epilogue. That should be up next week at the earliest. **

**I suppose Britana land can never be happy. At least not in _this _story. Maybe the sequel? :)**

**Yay happy finchel! at least we have them to keep our spirits up ;)**

**read, review & repeat!**

**sincerely, your antsy author**


	27. Don't Stop Believing

**Alright here we go. I'm pretty much going to go through the characters and show you where they are a year later. **

**August 19, 2013**

_**-Rachel-**_

"Finn! Honey, can you help me put the rest of Katie's presents away?" I call out from the living room, lugging all the gift boxes and toys piled up in my arms from yesterday's party.

I feel Finn lift most of it out of my arms before I actually see his face. I sigh, "Thanks." and hop up on my tip-toes to kiss my husband on the cheek. He smiles and leads the way to our baby's room.

"When did your fathers say they were dropping Kate back off?" He asks after setting some of the gifts on Kate's dresser and putting the toys away in the toybox.

"In a couple hours, why?" After the party my Dads insisted on taking Kate for the night, they complain that they don't get to spend enough time with their granddaughter, but I swear they spend more time with Kate than we do.

Finn raises an eyebrow at me and saunters over, removing the boxes from my arms and setting them on the dresser beside me, and then scoops me up bridal style and kisses me passionately.

I got the hint.

**_-Finn-_**

My daughter is perfect. Like not, cliche every parent thinks their kid is the best kid in the world, my little girl is seriously the best damn kid in the world. Okay, maybe it is because she's mine, but that's not the point.

She's so smart, I mean, she's only one. But she's a baby genius. Katherine Faith Hudson, baby genius. Rachel said that she's developing at the normal rate or whatever, but I think everything she does is amazing. She totally milks it too. She said "Daddy," and I couldn't stop smiling and bragging about her for, like ever. So she says it all the damn time, especially when she does something bad, like refuses to eat, just because she knows I can't stay mad at her. She's just like Rachel. It's not fair.

She's got Rachel's eyes too, all chocolatey and innocent looking. These girls I live with, they could get me to do anything with those eyes.

She's got my freckles though, poor girl's gonna burn like crazy for the rest of her life. Sorry Kit Kat.

She's spoiled rotten too. She's got me, Rach, Blaine, Puck, Kurt, Sam, Quinn, my mom and Rachel's dads at her beck and call _all _the time.

Plus Santana sends her presents from New Jersey at least once a week, sometimes _just _to send presents. She sent her a bobblehead from the Police Academy she's training at. What's a baby going to do with a bobblehead? Actually, what does _anyone _really do with a bobblehead?

But yeah, Santana's going to be a cop. Never saw that coming, well actually, none of us did. When she got out of that drunken stupor she had some revelation about doing a complete 180 and joining law enforcement. I guess she's damn good at it. The fact that she's pro at it doesn't come as a shock. If Santana pulled me over I'd probably piss myself, that girl is intimidating as shit.

-**_Puck-_**

Finn and I are screwed. Karma has finally come back and bit me in the ass. First, he sends me Quinn and fucks up my mind chemistry and turns me into a lovesick lost puppy. Then, he drops Beth in my lap. Quinn says that Beth is her perfect thing. The one thing she could never screw up.

She's right. The girl is an angel. Beth and Katie are gonna be maneaters someday. Yikes, I'm gonna be _that _dad, the guy that sits on the porch with a gun waiting for his daughter to come home from a date.

The kind of dad that hated guys like me. I need to keep her _away _from guys like me.

-**_Quinn-_**

Puck is a great Dad. He's so careful and adorable with Beth. He's the only one who can get her back to sleep when she wakes up crying in the night. Which is great because I haven't slept this good since before I got knocked up.

He just picks her up out of the crib, holds her close to his chest, he says it's so that she can hear his heartbeat, and he sings to her.

I can hear her cries from the baby monitor.

"I got it babe." Puck wakes up immediately and slips out of bed and down the hall of our apartment.

I quietly follow him, my footsteps practically silent on the carpet. I creep down to Beth's room and peek through the doorway.

_Beth, I hear you callin' _

_But I can't come home right now _

_Me and the boys are playin' _

_And we just can't find the sound _

_Just a few more hours _

_And I'll be right home to you _

_I think I hear them callin' _

_Oh, Beth what can I do? _

_Beth what can I do? _

_You say you feel so empty _

_That our house just ain't a home _

_And I'm always somewhere else _

_And you're always there alone _

_Just a few more hours _

_And I'll be right home to you _

_I think I hear them callin' _

_Oh, beth what can I do? _

_Beth what can I do? _

_Beth, I know you're lonely _

_And I hope you'll be alright _

_'Cause me and the boys will be playin' _

_All night_

I bite my lip, to hold back the smile growing on my face. The floor creaks beneath my feet and Puck's head jerks up to look at me.

"Oh. Hey, you didn't have to get up, I-"

"I love you." I interrupt.

He smiles, and gently sets Beth back into her crib.

He walks over to me and tucks some stray hairs behind my ear. "I love you too."

He wraps his arm around me, "C'mon, you gotta work tomorrow. Those runts can't teach themselves."

I playfully slap his arm for teasing my first graders and follow him back to the bedroom.

_**-Santana-**_

No way did I ever see myself here. A soon to be Cop in New Jersey. 14 out of 26 weeks at a police academy and I've already received a generous offer from EOPD.

Why New Jersey you ask? That's where Brit's job offer came from. We moved to East Orange 4 months ago, so that Brit could work at this prestigious dance studio.

That's right, Brit finally took me back. I've been sober for 10 months, back with Brittany for 6 and in New Jersey for 4.

Only thing that sucks is that I'm away from everyone. If it wasn't for the academy, I'd go visit more, but I have to be on the grounds during the week, no exceptions.

I don't get to see Katie or Beth as much as I'd like, but I send them presents all the time. They're my surrogate children, because I could never have my own. Sure spending time with Kit Kat and Bee is amazing, but _I_ don't have to take them home when they're cranky and hungry.

Which is fine by me. Plus, Brit took Lord Tubbington to Jersey with us and he's child enough for her.

It was rough at first, getting clean. Rach had to practically lock me in my room to keep me from going out, but I thank her for being so strict with me, it meant she cared.

But it's Brit I really have to thank, she was my motivation, that and I knew Rach and Quinn wouldn't let me around the girls if I was in a bad place.

But that's the past now and I'm really happy.

**_-Sam-_**

"You bought the bar?" Puck asks, his mouth dropping open in surprise.

"Yeah, Paul moved, he didn't ask a whole lot for it. I got a loan from my dad and I mean, we did sort of decide to do this quite awhile ago." I remind him.

"Yeah." He nods, still shocked. "When we were drunk."

"So what, we can use it as practice space. Jesse St. Jackass only gives us a couple nights per week, so we can practice at the bar on our off time. Plus, if we actually made the place look nice, advertised, hired some people. We could make some money off of it. I studied business, I know what I'm doing. You could partner up with me, you know your alcohol." I point out.

He shakes his head, "I dunno Sam, I don't think Quinn would be into it."

Just then Quinn walks into the kitchen behind me, "Into what?" She asks as she washes out one of Beth's bottles and sets it on a dish strainer.

"Sam bought Paul's bar, and he wants me to run it with him." Puck walks over to her and winds his arms around her waist. I _knew _he'd be into it. He only holds her like that when he wants something from her.

"Puck, I don't know, that doesn't sound very responsible."

"Trial run." I blurt.

"What?" Puck and Quinn say in unison.

"One month, give us a month and if you still think it's bad idea, we'll shut the whole thing down."

She sighs. "One month, Sam don't make me regret this." She warns.

Right, what could tiny Quinnie do. Oh wait, she's got Puck's testicles in a mason jar, so the real question is what _couldn't _she do.

_**-Kurt-**_

"All ready?" I hear Blaine call from the entryway.

"Almost!" I shout back, dispensing some mousse into my hand and styling it through my hair. I wink at the mirror, I look fabulous.

"Come on Kurt! We have to meet everyone in twenty minutes!"

I shake my head, impatience. "Alright, I'm coming!"

I grab my white peacoat on our way out the door and follow Blaine out to the sidewalk to hail a cab.

When we finally get to the cafe, I'm giddy. I feel like our news is going to bust out of me at any moment.

We're all sitting around a table. Blaine, to my left, Rachel to my right with Finn next to her and Katie in his lap. Carole and my Dad are seating across from us and Blaine's parents are on speakerphone on Blaine's blackberry placed at the center of the table.

I clap my hands together. "Everyone ready?"

I glance at Blaine, signaling him to tell the news. He opens his mouth to speak but I can't wait a second longer.

"We're pre-engaged!" I practically shout.

Rachel claps, Katie bounces up and down at her mother's obvious excitement. Finn and everyone else stares at me, confused.

"Pre- engaged? What, what does that mean?" My dad asks me.

"It means, we plan to get engaged, soon."

"Why not wait until you're engaged to tell everyone?" Carole looks around the table and fiddles with the napkin in her hands nervously.

"Well I mean, technically we _are _engaged. Kurt just refuses to call it that until I get him a ring." Blaine elaborates. Tossing me a teasing glance.

"Oh! Well yay, then. Yay!" Carole smiles and gestures for the waiter to bring wine over.

"Yeah, congrats guys." Finn says, throwing his fist up, to be bumped by Blaine. Boys.

"That's great sweetie!" Blaine's mother gushes from the phone. "Isn't that great, Derek?" She asks Blaine's father, who simply responds by making a grumpy 'harumph' noise and mumbling some sort of friendly gesture. It's no secret that Blaine's dad isn't super keen on Blaine's relationship with me. He's still convinced that Blaine is still "experimenting" and our relationship is "temporary" and will "pass with time". Pish posh.

"What do you think Princess Kate?" I ask, leaning close to the little girl's face.

She tosses her hands in the air and shouts undecipherable sounds of enjoyment and so I'll take that as a congratulations.

**_-Rachel-_**

After everything that's happened. The Lucy fiasco, my father's accident, the pregnancy, Quinn's pregnancy/adultery debacle, Santana's coming out.

I feel like it was all strangely worth it. It made us all who we are, right now. I like the now. I'm so happy it's ridiculous, almost like something awful is just around the corner. _That _was cynical.

Even just standing here in the doorway to my room. While my husband and my daughter are asleep on our bed. Her curled up between his arm and his side, him with a little bit of drool coming out of the corner of his mouth. It all feels perfect.

So I carefully walk over to the bed, and crawl up to the other side of him. Snuggling against his chest. He wakes up, just for a second and kisses my temple.

"Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." I say, sighing a little.

"For what?" He continues to whisper.

"For having faith in me." He kisses my temple again, as I drift off to sleep.

**And that's the end...only it's not. **

**However, instead of a "sequel" I've decided to post a series of oneshots, in no particular or chronological order. They will all be based on this story though.**

**They will span from a finchel wedding, to teenage Kate, to future babies, to unwritten occurances in college. Like, Rachel's first party or when Santana met Brittany. I will also be taking requests. Anything you'd like to me write about from this? Just review and let me know and I'll get on it.**

**The series of oneshots will probably begin within a week or so. Just look out for it. **

**Or if you have me on author alert, which a whopping 9 of you do, ^_^, you'll get an email about it :)**

**read, review & repeat! **

**Fin. (I love when writers do this on finchel pieces. Play on words, Fin...Finn...haha. Wow I'm a dork) **


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